Join the Chichester Singers and Southern Pro Musica for an unforgettable performance of Mendelssohn’s Elijah at Chichester Cathedral. Renowned baritone Gareth Brynmor John will take the powerful role of Elijah, leading this dramatic tale of resilience, faith, and redemption. Known for its dynamic character arcs and moving arias, Elijah is a compelling introduction to oratorio. Read more about Gareth.
On Saturday 16 November the Chichester Singers and Southern Pro Musica presents Mendelssohn’s Elijah at Chichester Cathedral.
Gareth Brynmor John will be in the title role. Simon O’Hea is in conversation with Gareth.
Gareth
I’m looking forward to coming to Chichester. This must be the third or fourth time that I’ve been to sing at the Cathedral.
I always look forward to working with choral societies: They’re a uniquely British part of our musical ecosystem. You meet a choir that’s been working on a piece for a long period of time, and you turn up as the icing on the cake of their performance. Everyone has given up their own time to be there, the performance is a passion of theirs, and there’s an excitement about it. As a professional you can feed off their energy.
Jonathan [Willcocks] always prepares this wonderful choir to such a high level that it’s very enjoyable for me not just to sing in front of it, but to listen to it as well.
Simon
And what about the piece itself? You’re obviously familiar with it. Is there anything in particular that the listener might be excited to come and hear?
Gareth
I have sung it quite a number of times before. It’s a timeless story of one person willing to stand up for truth in the face of fashions heading in the wrong direction. In that sense everybody can lay on top of that story whatever they like, whatever it means for them in contemporary times. So it’s a good universal story, and one which – like lots of good works – seems to have as much to say about today, as the time that the music was composed, or indeed the time that the text was written.
Simon
What about Elijah as a character or as a role, then?
Gareth
Mendelson was very keen to see this as a dramatic work, even though as part of the oratorio cannon it’s intended for concert performance. It starts with Elijah laying down the gauntlet that there will be a drought until the people sort themselves out and stop worshipping false gods. The drama of the piece unfolds from there. Much of the piece is quite conversational between Elijah, God and other soloists, but also between Elijah and the chorus. So it’s very accessible in that way to get into it as a piece of drama as well as a piece of music. If you were considering whether this would be a good “first” oratorio concert to come and see: the answer is undoubtedly yes!
Simon
And presumably that’s some of the reasons why it’s been so popular and has endured over the years.
Gareth
Yes. Obviously that helps the audience along. But also, from the performers perspective, it’s very easy to get inside the character of what is going on musically at any time. It’s so clear all the intentions behind all the lines, and so maybe it’s relatively easier to achieve a satisfying musical performance of it as a result.
Simon
So, it offers more than just one thing: It’s a variety of different things that it offers the audience.
Let’s say I was coming to it for the first time. Obviously it’s retelling the biblical story and all of that. Is that the essence of it?
Gareth
Yes, that’s right, it retells the story of Elijah who stands up for the truth of the Christian God against the Pagan gods that the people have started worshipping.
He says that if they don’t stop worshipping those gods and turn to the true God, that there’ll be a drought and it won’t end until they do. And he then gets blamed for that drought, and everyone turns against him. That includes King Ahab and Queen Jezebel, who also try to turn the people against him.
There’s an incredible chorus scene where the priests who worshipped Baal (this Pagan God), and Elijah, have a competition to see whose god can bring fire. After some hugely forceful choral and orchestral writing as the Baalites (played by the chorus) call to Baal for fire, the music stops and there is the most meaningful silence. Their god isn’t answering – no response! Then Elijah speaks to the true God and fire comes. He uses that to burn the Pagan priests.
The musical setting in some of these sections is incredible. The aria “Is not his word like a fire?”, follows at this moment. It’s suddenly like one of the most extraordinary Handel arias – similar music and meaning to “For he is like a refiner’s fire” from the Messiah. He wrote this piece for performance in Birmingham Town Hall, and he’d been there conducting the performances in previous festivals in earlier years and conducting some of Handel’s music, so it’s easy to see how some of those influences have found their way into the piece. And if you compare that to some of the music that comes in the second-half, which is much more richly romantic. “It is enough”, for instance, is a totally different style of music.
Simon
You are looking forward to it, by the sounds of things anyway.
Gareth
I always enjoy Elijah – it’s an absolute staple of the Baritone repertoire. We always look for these dramatic character arcs, these narratives that come, and you start the piece in one place and you end the piece in another. Often, quite frankly, it’s really hard work to find them in oratorio music – they can be quite static and they’re not always written with that in mind.
But this work is the polar opposite; you can plot all the differences which occur between the arias, which lead to the different moods of those areas. It is a very satisfying performance: you feel like you’ve been on a real journey from one end of the evening to the other. So, yes, I do really enjoy performing it.
Apart from that, it’s got some absolutely stonking music. Lots of the melodies are instantly recognisable.
Of Elijah’s music, “It is enough” is very well known. That comes when he’s at the absolute depths of despair. He’s exiled, and in the midst of this whole piece being about him desperately trying to get the people to rediscover their faith in one God, this is the moment where he almost loses his own faith. It’s too much for him to bear and he begins to doubt himself. And he says “it is enough,” with this haunting cello line which seems to hold all of his despair.
“For the mountains shall depart,” which is Elijah’s final bit of singing, is really an effective palate cleanser at the end of the evening, having been in this very dark place. Things begin to move on and we end up in this nice tripping 6/4 tempo. It’s a little bit wrapping it all up in a bow, but that’s also a very beautiful moment.
The two tenor arias are also very well known. The tenor doesn’t have loads to do in Elijah, but Mendelssohn has given him two stunning arias. In the first half, there’s “If with all your hearts,” which is beautiful. “Then shall the righteous shine forth,” where he keeps setting “shine shine” on these lovely fine high notes for the tenor, and they just radiate out over the orchestra. It’s glorious word-setting.
Simon
That was very clever indeed. And it was his last major work before he died. So he was already famous, I think, both as a conductor and as a composer.
About Gareth
Visit https://www.garethbrynmorjohn.co.uk
Image (c) Pablo Strong
