Orchestra Iowa preparing for the ‘Messiah’

Orchestra Iowa Maestro Timothy Hankewich performed Handel’s “Messiah” for 28 years in a row, eventually singing all of the vocal parts as his voice changed, then conducting the beloved oratorio.

Now 54, Hankewich first heard the “Hallelujah Chorus” when he was 8 years old. “I thought to myself, ‘I need more of that,’ and by the time I was 10, I sang my very first ‘Messiah,’ ” he said.

That tradition came to an end 15 years ago, but now it’s time for the trumpet to sound again.

Hankewich is picking up his baton and leading the orchestra, Chamber Singers of Iowa City and four soloists through all three sections of the work Saturday evening, Nov. 20, at the Paramount Theatre in Cedar Rapids and Sunday afternoon, Nov. 21 at the Coralville Center for the Performing Arts.

The timing is right to bring it back, he said.

“Programming a season for an orchestra after a year and a half of them not playing is quite a challenge,” he said, “because I don’t want to set anybody up to fail. The fundamentals of ensemble playing, which we used to take for granted, are skills we are going to have to relearn. So programming works that are familiar ensures that the orchestra can succeed, and do very well. The proof was in pudding when we performed Beethoven’s fifth symphony.

“Same thing with choristers,” he discovered when he reached out to Iowa City Chamber Singers director David Puderbaugh about performing with the orchestra.

The collaboration will help the singers “get back into the swing of things,” too, Hankewich said.

“It is good to revisit the familiar after a long hiatus from performing,” he noted. “Plus, audiences love it, so it makes great programmatic sense, and it also is perfect for all the musicians to regain their footing.”

The “Hallelujah Chorus” is the most familiar for piece to listeners, and the stirring section traditionally brings audience members to their feet. However, it’s just one part of the entire three-part ‘Messiah’ embracing the major aspects of Jesus’ life: the Prophecy and Nativity; the Passion of the Christ; and the Resurrection.

The sections often are performed separately, referred to as the Christmas and Easter portions. The “Hallelujah Chorus” actually ends Part II, but when an ensemble is doing just the Christmas portion, it gets moved there to create a rousing finale.

“The end of the Christmas portion is ‘His Yoke is Easy,’ which is kind of an unsatisfying end,” Hankewich said. “So tacking on ‘The Trumpet Shall Sound’ and ‘Hallelujah Chorus’ and maybe another aria and the great ‘Amen’ rounds out the program if you were just doing the ‘Christmas’ portion.”

From beginning to end, ”Messiah” clocks in at three and a half hours, and when Handel wrote it in 1741, audiences often came to theaters for more than the music.

“In this day and age … you’re asking a lot of an audience to stick around for two hours, let alone three,” Hankewich told the online viewers tuning in to “Happy Hour with Maestro Tim” on Facebook on Nov. 9. “You have to understand, though, historically, people went to these marathon concerts not just for the music. It was for the cheap heating — someone else was paying the bill. So three- or four- hour concerts, hey, that’s a good deal to stay warm.

“And if it wasn’t in a church, it would be in a theater, and you could go there to talk, you could go there to gamble, they also doubled as a brothel sometimes. So the whole idea of the concert experience — the interesting stuff was actually happening in the audience, not necessarily what was happening on stage,” Hankewich continued.

“And so our preconceived notion of sitting politely in darkness and silence for three hours or more, that’s a lot to ask of an audience.”

Never fear — he’s not asking that of the upcoming audiences. He’s trimmed more than an hour off the music, so with intermission, he’s expecting the concert to run two hours and 15 minutes.

He’s not a fan of just lopping phrases off of arias and choruses, however. He’s performed in various concerts that included all 53 pieces, but they were cut so deeply he said they became “virtually unrecognizable.”

Instead, he’s dropped some movements, but told his Facebook audience that he prefers to keep the Christmas portion intact, since that’s what audiences know best.

“But the musicians know that it’s the Easter portion that’s really meaty,” he said. “The problem with the ‘Messiah’ is (that) it’s so deep, it’s hit after hit after hit. Dropping some of the numbers was really hard, like ‘How Beautiful are the Feet.’ I dropped it.”

He’s kept in “all the great highlights,” but realizes some people might be disappointed not to hear a favorite part.

“There are several choruses we’re not doing, that are still fabulous, like ‘Let All the Angels of God Worship Him,’ ‘Their Sound is Gone Out’ and ‘The Lord Gave the Word’ (that) won’t be performed,” he said. “All the great arias will be performed, like ‘Refiner’s Fire’ and ‘The Trumpets Shall Sound’ and ‘He Shall Feed His Flock.’ ”

Featured soloists are soprano Jessica Pray of Iowa City, mezzo-soprano Suzanne Lommler of Indianola, tenor Eric Barry of Amarillo, Texas, and bass Craig Irvin of Des Moines. They will join the orchestra for dress rehearsal.

Hankewich already has checked in with the Chambers Singers, conducting a recent rehearsal. Puderbaugh has been preparing the ensemble, and Hankewich is pleased with what he’s heard.

"They’re doing well,“ he said. ”They’re a small chorus and we’re a small orchestra. As a result, we’re a much more nimble ensemble, which if I’m going to fit all of this into two hours and 15 minutes, we’re going to have to be.“

His first rehearsal with the Chamber Singers brought a few surprises, too.

“Because I thought I knew the piece so well, I really didn’t crack the score until 20 minutes before rehearsal with the chorus,” he said. “I found out that I started making mistakes with wrong cues. But, it was a wonderful evening of rediscovery. I even thanked chorus for making the heart grow.

“As certain passages were coming up, I realized, ‘Oh right, there’s a great alto line here,’ or ‘There’s a great tenor line here’ or ‘This is my favorite part,’ ‘No, this is my favorite part’ or ‘No — this is my favorite chorus.’

“So after 30 years, where you can become ho-hum and inured to it, having to be reminded how great the work is was actually a real joy,” he said, “because there’s all these nuggets in rehearsal that I was rediscovering.”

And that’s just the opening refrain. After “Messiah,“ he and his musicians move into the Holiday Spectacular from Dec. 3 to 5, followed by the Brass and Organ Holiday Concert on Dec. 14; and the ”Nutcracker“ ballet on Dec. 18. For details, go to artsiowa.com/tickets/

“I’ve got a lot of work to make up for,” he said. “They’re putting me to work for sure, but I thought, ‘This is the year we should own Christmas.’ ”

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