United Kingdom Mendelssohn, Elijah: Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha (soprano), Angharad Lyddon (mezzo-soprano), Belinda Gifford-Guy (treble), Trystan Llŷr-Griffiths (tenor), Sir Bryn Terfel (bass-baritone), Crouch End Festival Chorus, Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra / John Lubbock (conductor). Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, 1.12.2024. (CR)
Mendelssohn – Elijah, Op.70
It is perhaps unfortunate timing to programme an oratorio about the triumphalist, sometimes violent, confrontation of an Israelite prophet and his countrymen with the different cultural and religious values of the people among whom they find themselves in Palestine (and maybe that explained the squeamishness of the attendants at the Sheldonian Theatre in funnelling the audience through the single smallest side gate possible to enter the venue, presumably to forestall any agitation). On the other hand, as a Jewish prophet who is interpreted in Christian theology as a precursor or typological foreshadowing of Jesus Christ, it was apt that this presentation of Mendelssohn’s Elijah (1846) came on Advent Sunday.
It also marked the climax of the first part of the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra’s Bach and Mendelssohn Festival (the second part is to come in March). However, especially in this performance in an uncredited English translation (in the language of the Authorised Version of the Bible or something very like that) it rather more emphasised the connection with Handel’s English oratorios, with their monumental choruses and Biblical incidents dramatically re-told through music, and also to some extent with recent Anglican musical traditions such as Samuel Sebastian Wesley. Although much less well-known (and also for that reason would have been a welcome opportunity) Paulus would have made a better connection with Bach, not least on account of its overture’s use of the chorale ‘Wachet auf’ (made famous, not least, by the earlier composer’s Cantata No.140).
Nevertheless, this was a bold, portentous interpretation that underlined the prophet’s life as a significant moment in the course of ancient Israel’s history as narrated in the Jewish scriptures (or the Christian Bible’s Old Testament). Sir Bryn Terfel’s defiant, even aggressive declamation which, unconventionally, opens the work before the overture comes in, set the tone. His forceful, sometimes even growling exhortations to the Israelites to give up their idolatrous ways and return to God commandingly punctuated and structured the performance, highlighting what is at stake in the religious drama, even if the cumulative effect of those calls maybe came to seem like being hectored by a hellfire preacher – not least in the section ‘Is not His word like a fire’, where the syllables were almost spewed out against the false god Baal and his prophets. That gravitas carried over into John Lubbock’s solid direction of the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra, who frequently accompanied with urgent, striding chords which tended to remain fairly detached, rather than broad or overladen with vibrato. That approach ensured a leaner, more open sound in quieter or more tender passages which largely forestalled the impression of sentimental Victorian piety which has often been charged against this work. In those sections, Terfel then blended seamlessly but still sonorously.
Trystan Llŷr-Griffiths drew an effective contrast between his brightly sung and cleanly enunciated role as the righteous Obadiah, and his more clipped and weightier delivery as the apostate king Ahab. Angharad Lyddon gave a fully rounded, not ethereal account of the Angel, but invested her performance with more colour for the part of the wicked queen Jezebel. Taking the solo soprano parts, Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha evinced greater calm and humility, first as the Widow, and then in the aria as the unnamed figure who opens Part II, although some intonation was just beneath the note. The Crouch End Festival Chorus were fully engaged with the drama as the various groups of Israelite People, Courtiers, and Prophets of Baal. Despite being spread out across two galleries there was impressive unanimity in execution, presenting an emphatic edifice of sound, not least in their desperate, ringing calls on ‘Baal’, vainly hoping that the god will appear to kindle the sacrifice. All told, this was a vivid interpretation of the oratorio which brought its action very much into the moment, rather than a more detached reflection upon ancient sacred history.
Curtis Rogers