Sydney Philharmonia Choirs - Mendelssohn's Oratorio Elijah (2024)

Choral Singing / Oratorio

 

Mendelssohn's Elijah

 

Date:  Saturday 18 May 2024 at 7pm
Venue: Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House 

 

Finally, Mendelssohn's Elijah is happening, presented by the Sydney Philharmonia Festival Chorus. SPC's supporters and followers will remember that due to COVID-19, 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.

"The tone and beguiling quality of Rhodes' voice remains untouched. There is a velvet like richness... great resonance... a touching sense of fragility..." 

~ Limelight, 2021~

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 ambience of the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall. 

Mendelssohn’s Elijah is a ‘bigger than Ben Hur’ Biblical drama with a cast of hundreds. And Sydney Philharmonia Choirs is thrilled to bring it with operatic baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes in the title role and the 400-voice Festival Chorus filling the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall.

If you’re a fan of Handel oratorios, you’re in good company – so was Felix Mendelssohn. Elijah was his response to the English oratorio tradition, with its Old Testament story (earthquake! fire! and the ‘still small voice’) imagined for the concert hall. In its more reflective moments you can hear the worshipful influence of Bach. The result is a thrilling Romantic picture of a ‘grand and mighty prophet…borne on the wings of angels’, but it also conveys a very human drama with tremendous sympathy.

Whether you come for the sheer magnificence of the performance or for the powerful and moving drama, you’ll experience first-hand the triumphant choral masterpiece that inspired a generation.

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 April 22, 2024. 



"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!

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs - Fauré Requiem

CHORAL MUSIC / Sydney Philharmonia Choirs


Sydney Philharmonia presents:

Fauré Requiem
Thursday,  28 March 2024, 7pm

Sydney Town Hall

French composer Gabriel Fauré composed Requiem in D minor, Op. 48, between 1887 and 1890, revised it in the 1890s, and finished it in 1900. The choral-orchestral setting of the shortened Catholic Mass for the Dead in Latin is the best-known of his large works.

The focus of Fauré Requiem is on eternal rest and consolation. Depicting peace and beauty of the heavenly afterlife, the spirit is restored and the soul is healed.   

 

                                    Image Credit: Sydney Philharrmonia

The last time Sydney Philharmonia Choirs sang Faure's Requiem was during the late 2020 under the strains of COVID-19, rehearsing and sharing music with us in the digital realm. This time, Sydney Philharmonia brings this live concert in Sydney Town Hall.

This Easter, SPC offer a concert that embraces the uplifting energy and the healing power of choral singing.

Fauré’s Requiem is paired with a revival of John Peterson’s Shadows and Light, an SPC commission inspired by both the texts of the requiem mass and the headlines of September 11, 2001. But the key to the program is not death but rest (requiem) and light.

Both works play to the virtuosity and youthful sound of VOX and Chamber Singers. Shadows and Light features Peterson’s animated rhythms and attractive blending of musical styles – traditional and popular – in music that reminds us we need shadow in order to ‘see the light’.

Fauré’s Requiem stands apart from its more theatrical counterparts. Instead of fire-and-brimstone drama, it’s beautiful and consoling – a ‘lullaby of death’. Experience Fauré’s original vision with its intimate use of instruments and voices, from the drama of the Libera Me to the ethereal purity of the Pie Jesu and a finale that will take you to paradise.

Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings is the cathartic interlude in this profoundly moving concert.

Thursday 28 March at 7pm
Sydney Town Hall

This performance will run for 1 hour and 15 minutes. No interval.

PROGRAM

John Peterson Shadows and Light
Samuel BARBER Adagio for Strings
Gabriel FAURÉ Requiem
(1893 version edited by John Rutter)

ARTISTS

Elizabeth Scott conductor
Chloe Lankshear soprano
Andrew Goodwin tenor
Andrew O’Connor baritone
VOX and Chamber Singers
Sydney Philharmonia Orchestra

TICKETS

Premium $135 | A $110 | B $71 | C $50 | D $40
Concessions $122 | A $99| B $64 | C $45 | D $36
Under 30 $30
A booking fee of $8.95 per transaction applies.

BOOK TICKETS HERE

Download Program here

SPC Chamber Singers & VOX. Image Credit: Eva Tilley

Suggested Videos for Listening: 

1. Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings.

LEonard Slatkin conducting the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.  Accessed March 13, 2024.   

 

2. In Paradisum (Fauré): Winchester Cathedral Choir. YouTube, uploaded by drwestbury. Accessed March 13, 2024. [Lyrics below: In Paradise (In paradisum)]

 

Angels lead you (Deducant te Angeli),
And give the Martyrs (In tuo adventu suscipiant te Martyres),
 

And take you to the holy city; (Et perducant te in civitatem sanctam Jerusalem),
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Jerusalem. Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Jerusalem.

Angels welcome; (Angelorum te suscipiat),

When Lazarus once poor, (Et cum Lazaro quondam paupere),
When Lazarus, once poor, (Et cum Lazaro quondam paupere).

have eternal rest; (æternam habeas requiem),
have eternal rest. (æternam habeas requiem).

4. Gabriel Fauré - Requiem in D minor, Op. 48 (Introduced by Sir John Gielgud) YouTube, uploaded by EuroArtsChannel. From the Winchester Cathedral. Winchester Cathedral Choir English Chamber Orchestra Martin Neary - conductor Thomas Allen - baritone Dominic Harvey (soloist at Pie Jesu) James Lancelot - organist.  4:35 I. Introit and Kyrie 12:00 II. Offertoire 20:48 III. Sanctus 24:32 IV. Pie Jesu 28:42 V. Agnus Dei et Lux aeterna 35:18 VI. Libera me 40:24 VII. In Paradisum.  Accessed March 13, 2024. 

Video Credit:

 

Faure Requiem. Sydney Philharmonia Choirs.

 

 

Resources:

Fauré Requiem. Sydney Philharmonia Choirs.  Accessed March 13, 2024. (Available the time of posting.)   

 

Fauré (Requiem). en. wikipedia.org.  

 

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs 2024 Season.  

 

Reviews:  

 

Fauré’s Requiem (Sydney Philharmonia Choirs). Limelight. 4.5 STARS. Reviewed by Steve Moffatt. Accessed March 30, 2024.  

Review: Fauré's Requiem at Sydney Town Hall. eastsidefm.org. Reviewed by Paul Neeson. Accessed March 30, 2024.    

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs Present Faure's Requiem conduced by Elizabeth Scott @ Sydney Town Hall on Thursday March 28 2024. 5 STARS. Reviewed by John Pollak. Accessed March 31, 2024. 

For COVID-19 SAFETY
Note from Sydney Philharmonia Choirs: 

• The number of people in attendance will be limited in accordance with current Public Health Orders and ensuring appropriate physical distancing at all times.
• Hand sanitiser will be available and audience members over the age of 12 are required to wear masks.
• To minimise unnecessary contact, we will be distributing a digital program book, available in advance.

DETAILS ABOUT OUR COVID-19 SAFETY PLAN

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