Mendelssohn – Elias
Christine Schäfer; Cornelia Kallisch; Michael Schade; Wolfgang Schöne; Gächinger Kantorei Stuttgart;
Bach-Collegium Stuttgart; Helmuth Rilling
Hänssler Classic CD 098.017
Mendelssohn’s Elias is known as Elijah in the English-speaking world. And it was in English that the oratorio was first performed at the Birmingham Festival in 1846 with Mendelssohn himself conducting. The work became very popular in England, though by the end of the 19th century a reaction had set in. In 1892 George Bernard Shaw called it “sensuously beautiful in the most refined and fastidiously decorous way, but thoughtless.” Shaw was willing to set Elijah next to the “seraphic,” not religious, music of Gounod but could not find more in it than “exquisite prettiness.” Parsifal, Die Zauberflöte, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and the best of Bach and Handel were adduced as contrasts. In recent years interest in Elijah has revived (there are now 25 recordings available), as listeners have begun to consider the work on its own merits, not as a pale imitation of Handel’s oratorios or Bach’s Passions.
The CDs under review constitute a re-release; the music was recorded in 1994 and the discs were first released soon afterwards. There is stiff competition from two earlier recordings, which both date from 1968: the Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos (a very dramatic reading with Janet Baker superb in the alto arias) and the Wolfgang Sawallisch (with Elly Ameling, Peter Schreier and Theo Adam as Elias). It stands up well, both because of Rilling’s conducting and the quality of the singing. The soloists are Christine Schäfer, soprano, Cornelia Kallisch, alto, Michael Schade, tenor, and baritone Wolfgang Schöne as Elias.
