Mendelssohn. Elijah

Performed by

Soloists:
Anastasia Kalagina (1^st soprano)
Irina Mataeva (2^nd soprano)
Yekaterina Sergeyeva (mezzo-soprano)
Alexander Timchenko (tenor)
Shenyang (bass)

Chorus and Symphony Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre
Principal Chorus Master: Andrei Petrenko
Musical Preparation: Marina Mishuk

The oratorio Elijah was Felix Mendelssohn’s last major work – his swansong. It was commissioned by the Birmingham Festival, where his oratorio St Paul and his symphony Lobgesang (Hymn of Praise) had already been performed. The premiere took place on 26 August 1846, conducted by the composer, and proved an unprecedented success. The audience and the performers – including two hundred and seventy one chorus artists and one hundred and twenty-five orchestral musicians – were rivals in their enthusiasm.
The oratorio Elijah was written in the traditions of Handel. In Great Britain there was an unbroken tradition of performing Handel’s oratorios, and already by the 18^th century festivals were being held that brought together hundreds and thousands of performers.
The libretto follows the text of the Old Testament, so revered in Britain since the time of the puritans, as closely as possible. Mendelssohn did not know the Great Britain of the Victorian age, and yet his Elijah is a work that is deeply Victorian in spirit. It was not by mere chance that Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were admirers of the composer. On hearing Elijah, Prince Albert wrote a letter of thanks to Mendelssohn in which he compared the latter with a prophet who had cleansed the art of music of temptations and frivolity.
The style of Elijah was viewed by contemporaries as truly religious. On the one hand, the oratorio stands out for emphasising the traditions of Handel and Bach and brilliant polyphonic writing. In particular, Elijah’s aria “Is not his word like a fire?” (No 17) has, as its prototype, the aria “He is like a refiner’s fire” from The Messiah. On the other hand, romantic pathos and sincerity of emotions are inherent in the music. Not just in the eyes of Prince Albert, but in his own, too, Mendelssohn was a prophet, called on to bring music back from bowing down before newly fashionable idols and restoring to it eternal and unshakable values.

Anna Bulycheva