Canter Bridge

Mendelssohn’s Elijah has been loved, hated, belted out by innumerable church and community choirs, performed with white-tie panache, and more often than not simply ignored. It’s a difficult work to categorize and even more challenging to review helpfully, since it often appears to be several works in one.

So let’s just start at the beginning: the Introduction (‘As God the Lord of Israel liveth’) and Overture constitute one of music’s greatest kickoffs. The funereal opening chords lead directly into Elijah’s (a baritone) full frontal challenge, quoted in parentheses and underscored by a solemn belt of brass.

If the full work does not live up to this magisterial opening, it would be unfair to judge it too harshly on these grounds. By the time you work in the chorus(es), the full orchestra, and the other soloists, the work is inevitably complicated and sometimes diluted in its impact.

Nevertheless, I believe Elijah is a great work, though one that is habitually underrated. It does not have the popular oomph of Messiah nor the fireworks of pieces frequently visited by pops orchestras for their name/tune recognition and mass appeal. Yet it offers excellent soloists and choir an opportunity to excel and make some beautiful music together and separately. It also presents a discerning audience with the occasion to appreciate artists overcoming a high degree of difficulty on their way to entertainment that in the right hands rises from time to time to the level of the spectacular.