Sydney Philharmonia Choirs - Mendelssohn's Oratorio Elijah

Choral Singing / Oratorio

Due to COVID-19, like all performances in Performing Arts this concert has had its share of cancellations: first, for its May 9, 2020 at 3pm, for September 11, 2021 at 3pm, and then again, for December 16, 2021 at 7pm.

Mendelssohn's Elijah presented by the Sydney Philharmonia Festival Chorus

Date:  Thursday 16 December 2021 at 7pm (cancelled due to COVID related-reasons)
Venue: Centennial Hall, Sydney Town Hall

In Elijah, Mendelssohn combines the majestic tradition of Handel and the worshipful spirit of Bach with his own Romantic style.  

Elijah, Op. 70, MWV A 25, is an oratorio by Felix Mendelssohn depicting events in the life of the Prophet Elijah as told in the books 1 Kings and 2 Kings of the Old Testament. It premiered in 1846 at the Birmingham Festival. When Mendelssohn’s Elijah received its triumphant premiere at this festival there were more than a hundred musicians in the orchestra and several hundred singers in the choir. This is choral music on a grand scale, and the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs  will do it justice with the imposing sound of the 400-voice Festival Chorus and the perfect Victorian-era ambience of the Sydney Town Hall.

Based on an Old Testament story (earthquake! fire! and the “still small voice”), Elijah combines the majestic tradition of Handel and the worshipful spirit of Bach with Mendelssohn’s own Romantic style. The result is a thrilling musical picture of “a grand and mighty prophet…borne on the wings of angels”.

But, as conductor Brett Weymark points out, Elijah was also a complex personality and in some ways a “very difficult man”. Mendelssohn himself saw him as “energetic and zealous, but also stern, wrathful and gloomy.”

Sydney Philharmonia has no recorded video of this oratorio. Instead, below, I'm sharing this superb performance of Mendelssohn's Elijah, Op.70, MWV A25 / Part 1 - "Thanks be to God" excerpt performed by the Edinburgh Festival Chorus · Stephen Doughty · Orchestra of The Age of Enlightenment · Paul Daniel. Provided to YouTube by Universal Music Group. Accessed March 25, 2020. 



"Thanks be to God!"

Thanks be to God, He laveth the thirsty land. 
The waters gather, they rush along! 
They are lifting their voices! 
The stormy billows are high; their fury is mighty. 
But the Lord is above them, and Almighty!

Mozart Double Piano Concerto

Classical Music / Concertos

Mozart's Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra in E-flat major, K. 365/316a, is simply known as Mozart Double Piano Concerto (No. 10). It is not known when the composer completed this concerto but a research by Alan Tyson, a Glasgow-born British musicologist who specialized in studies of the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven, shows that cadenzas for the first and third movements are written in Mozart and his father Leopold Mozart's handwriting on a type of paper used between August 1775 and January 1777 (Wiki).  Most sources, however, including Alan Tyson's book Mozart: Studies of the Autograph Scores and Lindeman's The Concerto: A Research and Information Guide (2006) indicate that this concerto was composed in 1779. 

It is presumed that Mozart wrote it to play with his sister Maria Anna ("Nannerl"). He later performed it in a private concert with his pupil Josepha Barbara Auernhammer, an Austrian pianist and composer. 

 

Featured Video: 

I've listened to some interpretations, but consider the best this one played by Daniel Barenboim and Vladimir Ashkenazy, "Barenboim, Ashkenazy: "Barenboim, Ashkenazy: Mozart  Double Concerto - Documentary of 1966", with the English Chamber Orchestra. From 32.58 to 51.16:  32:58 Double Concerto, First movement 43:14 Double Concerto, Second movement 51:16 Double Concerto, Third movement  This video was taken in March 1966, when Barenboim and Ashkenazy were then two great young pianists and good friends.  (Youtube, uploaded by Allegro Films by Christopher Nupen. Accessed March 11, 2020.)

NOTE: 

Please watch on Youtube! Unfortunately, this video is not available for display on other websites. Thank you.  Here!

 

Resource:

Piano Concerto No. 10 (Mozart). en.wikipedia.org

 

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