Mainstage in Concert

Elijah

By Felix Mendelssohn

Scored for eight vocal soloists, full symphony orchestra, and large chorus, this oratorio by Felix Mendelssohn depicts events in the life of the prophet Elijah from the Book of Kings. Considered a “Classicizing Romantic” who blended Romantic emotionalism with classical structural precision and Baroque counterpoint, Mendelssohn chose Elijah’s story to work within an ordered yet emotionally charged aesthetic, striving to make Elijah a realistic human, rather than an aloof saint. The importance of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel was primary for Mendelssohn, and he became a major force in the eighteenth-century revival of interest in these Baroque composers.

Elijah premiered in 1846 conducted by the composer; it was met with tremendous success and received widespread acclaim. A pivotal work—for even as it helped revive Baroque oratorio, it also sparked later composers, such as Brahms and Dvořák, to investigate the form.