They sang a furious "Surely he hath borne our griefs" and an "All we like sheep have gone astray" of rollicking, almost celebratory intensity, egged on by a muscular, unrelenting orchestra.
In some Mr. Scott demanded that every syllable be crisply enunciated, an approach that can easily become mannered (as it did toward the end of "Surely he hath borne our griefs") but more often yields benefits in textual clarity (as in the brisk "Let us break their bonds asunder").
Naturally, Mr. Harnoncourt, an esteemed figure in the early-music movement, employs many of the stylistic practices common to period-instrument ensembles: the strings play with minimal vibrato; contrapuntal textures are scrupulously clear; dotted rhythms, as in the chorus "Surely He hath borne our griefs," are executed with an extra-quick snap.
I know that, generally speaking, most singers' favourite number is the heart-rending "Surely he hath borne" in Part II, and I know that while it's de rigueur to loudly claim boredom at singing the key-chain chorus "Hallelujah" to a standing (and often humming) audience, it still never fails to raise goosebumps among even the most sour, jaded professionals.
Isaiah 53 4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
Cue, surely, a hell-hath-no-fury climax that will put to shame Carrie, Kill List, Medea, Enough, Lipstick, She-Devil and I Spit on Your Grave.
According to Leviticus 20 9, "For every one that curseth his father or his mother shall be surely put to death: he hath cursed his father or his mother; his blood shall be upon him".
"Surely he [the Messiah] hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
With a great heaving of the flesh, let us rise up like the shafts of wheat that our Creator hath lately seen fit to deny us, surely casting us into a famine from which only those with spotless souls will emerge at springtide.
I know nothing human that is so; but surely she doth not deserve the Rancour with which she hath been treated by the Public.
