CLASSICAL MUSIC REVIEW : Handel Would Enjoy This ‘Messiah’ : Stage: Conductor Kenneth Kiesler brought refreshing vision to this holiday standard performed by the San Diego Symphony and Master Chorale.

SAN DIEGO —  Especially at this season, even well-financed performances of Handel’s “Messiah” easily fall into the rut of dutiful ritual. Fortunately, conductor Kenneth Kiesler brought a refreshing vision of the evergreen oratorio to Copley Symphony Hall on Thursday night. With enlightened authority, he took the San Diego Symphony and Master Chorale through all three sections of “Messiah,” leaving out just a few choruses and a pair of arias.

Kiesler’s vision of the work included lithe tempos informed by Baroque dance forms, ample stylish ornamentation and a highly dramatic declamation of the text. He restored the oratorio to early 18th-Century conventions, removing two centuries of pious, stultifying accretions. The audience actually heard Handel, not Handel reworked by Mozart, or Handel refurbished as Mendelssohn or Berlioz.

Although Kiesler’s approach is no longer novel--it has been available for more than a decade on numerous recordings, notably those made by conductors specializing in period instrument ensembles--provincial performances rarely reflect these insights.

An appropriately trimmed down configuration of the orchestra responded sympathetically to Kiesler’s lead. The strings sounded unusually sweet and pliant from the solemn opening strains of the sinfonia to the spritely polyphony of the final “Amen” chorus. The well-trained Master Chorale, prepared by director Frank Almond, provided vehement declamation in highly charged choruses such as “Surely, He Hath Borne Our Griefs” and light, lyrical lines in the more refined choruses such as “And He Shall Purify the Sons of Levi.”

About 112 members strong, the Master Chorale sang with the body and gravity of a large symphonic chorus, but displayed the clean articulation and transparent counterpoint of a much smaller ensemble. For this conductor’s purposes, it was truly the best of both worlds.

Soprano Virginia Sublett and tenor David Hamilton each fused their rich yet well-focused vocal sonorities with agile phrasing and elegant ornamentation. Everything they did, including their modest cadenzas, sounded graceful and naturally inventive. (It was with good reason that the English in Handel’s day called ornaments “graces.”) Hamilton brought quickening fervor to his recitatives, and Sublett exuded angelic purity in her Nativity recitatives in the oratorio’s first section.

The shallow timbre of mezzo-soprano Laura Brooks Rice did not carry well in the hall, although she negotiated her solos securely. Perhaps a true contralto with a solid lower register would have been a better choice than this mezzo, who did not sound comfortable much of the time. Baritone Martin Wright brought his wonted stentorian diction and sense of drama to his solos, although he sounded uncharacteristically strained.

In the final baritone aria “The Trumpet Shall Sound,” principal trumpet Calvin Price came to the edge of the stage to play his coloratura obbligato as if it were a trumpet concerto. Using a piccolo trumpet, Price carefully scaled down his fluent fioriture to complement Wright’s line. Keyboard player Hollace Koman, who deftly alternated between harpsichord and chamber organ, provided well-turned continuo realizations that added sparkle to the oratorio’s authentic sound.

As the second offering in the symphony’s Classically Baroque series, this “Messiah” performance fulfilled the promise of the series that was missed at last month’s appalling opening concert under conductor Alexander Schneider. Kiesler took this Baroque gem and placed it in a sympathetic setting, allowing its innate brilliance to shine through. We can only hope that his worthy precedent will prevail.

This program will be repeated tomorrow at 2 p.m. in Copley Symphony Hall.