United Kingdom Mendelssohn, Elijah: Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha (soprano), Angharad Lyddon (mezzo-soprano), Belinda Gifford-Man (treble), Trystan Llŷr-Griffiths (tenor), Sir Bryn Terfel (bass-baritone), Crouch Finish Pageant Refrain, Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra / John Lubbock (conductor). Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, 1.12.2024. (CR)
Mendelssohn – Elijah, Op.70
It’s maybe unlucky timing to programme an oratorio concerning the triumphalist, typically violent, confrontation of an Israelite prophet and his countrymen with the completely different cultural and non secular values of the folks amongst whom they discover themselves in Palestine (and perhaps that defined the squeamishness of the attendants on the Sheldonian Theatre in funnelling the viewers by the one smallest facet gate potential to enter the venue, presumably to forestall any agitation). However, as a Jewish prophet who’s interpreted in Christian theology as a precursor or typological foreshadowing of Jesus Christ, it was apt that this presentation of Mendelssohn’s Elijah (1846) got here on Introduction Sunday.
It additionally marked the climax of the primary a part of the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra’s Bach and Mendelssohn Pageant (the second half is to come back in March). Nonetheless, particularly on this efficiency in an uncredited English translation (within the language of the Authorised Model of the Bible or one thing very like that) it somewhat extra emphasised the reference to Handel’s English oratorios, with their monumental choruses and Biblical incidents dramatically re-told by music, and in addition to some extent with latest Anglican musical traditions resembling Samuel Sebastian Wesley. Though a lot much less well-known (and in addition for that motive would have been a welcome alternative) Paulus would have made a greater reference to Bach, not least on account of its overture’s use of the chorale ‘Wachet auf’ (made well-known, not least, by the sooner composer’s Cantata No.140).
Nonetheless, this was a daring, portentous interpretation that underlined the prophet’s life as a major second in the middle of historic Israel’s historical past as narrated within the Jewish scriptures (or the Christian Bible’s Outdated Testomony). Sir Bryn Terfel’s defiant, even aggressive declamation which, unconventionally, opens the work earlier than the overture is available in, set the tone. His forceful, typically even growling exhortations to the Israelites to surrender their idolatrous methods and return to God commandingly punctuated and structured the efficiency, highlighting what’s at stake within the non secular drama, even when the cumulative impact of these calls perhaps got here to look like being hectored by a hellfire preacher – not least within the part ‘Is just not His phrase like a fireplace’, the place the syllables had been nearly spewed out in opposition to the false god Baal and his prophets. That gravitas carried over into John Lubbock’s stable path of the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra, who often accompanied with pressing, striding chords which tended to stay pretty indifferent, somewhat than broad or overladen with vibrato. That method ensured a leaner, extra open sound in quieter or extra tender passages which largely forestalled the impression of sentimental Victorian piety which has usually been charged in opposition to this work. In these sections, Terfel then blended seamlessly however nonetheless sonorously.
Trystan Llŷr-Griffiths drew an efficient distinction between his brightly sung and cleanly enunciated position because the righteous Obadiah, and his extra clipped and weightier supply because the apostate king Ahab. Angharad Lyddon gave a completely rounded, not ethereal account of the Angel, however invested her efficiency with extra color for the a part of the depraved queen Jezebel. Taking the solo soprano elements, Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha evinced better calm and humility, first because the Widow, after which within the aria because the unnamed determine who opens Half II, though some intonation was simply beneath the notice. The Crouch Finish Pageant Refrain had been totally engaged with the drama as the varied teams of Israelite Folks, Courtiers, and Prophets of Baal. Regardless of being unfold out throughout two galleries there was spectacular unanimity in execution, presenting an emphatic edifice of sound, not least of their determined, ringing calls on ‘Baal’, vainly hoping that the god will seem to kindle the sacrifice. All advised, this was a vivid interpretation of the oratorio which introduced its motion very a lot into the second, somewhat than a extra indifferent reflection upon historic sacred historical past.
Curtis Rogers
