The History of Mendelssohn's Oratorio "Elijah" Part 10

The first performance of "Elijah" took place in the Birmingham Town Hall, on Wednesday morning, August 26, 1846. Benedict thus describes the scene: "The n.o.ble Town Hall was crowded at an early hour of that forenoon with a brilliant and eagerly-expectant audience. It was an anxious and solemn moment. Every eye had long been directed towards the conductor's desk, when, at half-past eleven o'clock, a deafening shout from the band and chorus announced the approach of the great composer. The reception he met with from the a.s.sembled thousands on stepping into his place was absolutely overwhelming; whilst the sun, emerging at that moment, seemed to illumine the vast edifice in honour of the bright and pure being who stood there the idol of all beholders."

The new oratorio was received with extraordinary enthusiasm, and the composer's expectations of his work were more than realised. _The Times_ said: "The last note of 'Elijah' was drowned in a long-continued unanimous volley of plaudits, vociferous and deafening.

It was as though enthusiasm, long-checked, had suddenly burst its bonds and filled the air with shouts of exultation. Mendelssohn, evidently overpowered, bowed his acknowledgments, and quickly descended from his position in the conductor's rostrum; but he was compelled to appear again, amidst renewed cheers and huzzas. Never was there a more complete triumph--never a more thorough and speedy recognition of a great work of art."

Eight numbers were encored: "If with all your hearts," "Baal, we cry to thee," "Regard Thy servant's prayer" (now "Cast thy burden"), "Thanks be to G.o.d," "He, watching over Israel," "O rest in the Lord,"

"For the mountains shall depart," and "O! every one that thirsteth."

Herr Staudigl gave a majestic and ideal rendering of the music of the Prophet. In the opinion of the late Mr. Stimpson, who spoke from forty years' experience of the Birmingham Festivals, Staudigl's interpretation of the ba.s.s part has never yet been equalled. The junior tenor of the Festival, Mr. Charles Lockey, fairly won his laurels. He sang his two songs "deliciously," says a critic; the first, "If with all your hearts," was encored, and "the smile upon Mendelssohn's face while it was being sung showed how much he was pleased with the chaste execution of this young tenor." The soprano and contralto soloists failed to satisfy Mendelssohn.

No small measure of the success of the performance was due to Mr.

Stimpson, the unwearied chorus-master. At its conclusion Mendelssohn took him by both hands and said: "What can I give you in return for what you have done for my work?" The composer was delighted with the manner in which the band and chorus had rendered his music; and an old member of the band records "the eagerness with which Mendelssohn shook hands with all who could get near him in the artists' room, thanking them warmly for the performance." A veteran member of the choir, speaking from the recollections and experiences of more than fifty years, says of Mendelssohn's appearance and conducting: "It was one of the most impressive memories I have in matters musical."

Before going into the Hall, Mendelssohn said to Chorley, the musical critic of the _Athenaeum_: "Now stick your claws into my book. Don't tell me what you like, but tell me what you _don't_ like." After the performance, he said in his merriest manner to Chorley: "Come, and I will show you the prettiest walk in Birmingham." He then led the critic and other friends to the banks of the ca.n.a.l, bordered by coal and cinder heaps. There, on the towing-path between the bridges, they walked for more than an hour discussing the new oratorio. According to the late Mr. Moore, it was then and there, amidst the scenery of the cinder heaps, that a sudden thought struck Mendelssohn to change "Lift thine eyes" from a duet into a trio.

Shortly after this "prettiest walk in Birmingham," Mendelssohn poured out his delighted feelings to his brother Paul in the following letter:--

[TO PAUL MENDELSSOHN-BARTHOLDY.]

"BIRMINGHAM, _August_ 26 [? 27], 1846.

"My dear Brother,--From the very first you took so kind an interest in my 'Elijah,' and thus inspired me with so much energy and courage for its completion, that I must write to tell you all about its first performance yesterday. No work of mine ever went so admirably the first time of execution, or was received with such enthusiasm, by both the musicians and the audience, as this oratorio. It was quite evident, at the first rehearsal in London, that they liked it, and liked to sing and to play it; but I own I was far from antic.i.p.ating that it would acquire such fresh vigour and 'go' in it at the performance. If you had only been there!

During the whole two hours and a half that it lasted, the two thousand people in the large hall, and the large orchestra, were all so fully intent on the one object in question, that not the slightest sound was to be heard among the whole audience, so that I could sway at pleasure the enormous orchestra and choir, and also the organ accompaniment. How often I thought of you during the time!

More especially, however, when the 'sound of abundance of rain' came, and when they sang the final chorus with _furore_, and when, after the close of the first part, we were obliged to repeat the whole movement ['Thanks be to G.o.d']. Not less than four choruses and four airs were encored, and not one single mistake occurred in the whole of the first part; there were some afterwards in the second part, but even these were but trifling. A young English tenor[49] sang the last air ['Then shall the righteous shine forth'] so beautifully, that I was obliged to collect all my energies so as not to be affected, and to continue beating time steadily. As I said, if you had only been there!"

[Footnote 49: Mr. Charles Lockey.]

In a letter written from London (August 31, 1846) to Frau Livia Frege, of Leipzig--a gifted amateur singer with a very lovely and high soprano voice--Mendelssohn said:--

"You have always shown so much kind interest in my 'Elijah,'

that I look upon it as a duty to write to you after its performance, and to give you an account of it. If this should weary you, you have only yourself to blame; for why did you allow me to come to you with the score under my arm, and play to you those parts that were half completed, and why did you sing so much of it to me at sight? You really ought to have felt it a duty to travel with me to Birmingham; for one ought not to make people's mouths water and make them feel dissatisfied with their condition where one cannot help them; and it was just the solo soprano part I found there in a most helpless and lamentable state. But there was so much that was good by way of compensation that, on the whole, I bring back a very pleasant impression, and I often thought that you also would have taken pleasure in it.

"The rich, full sounds of the orchestra and the huge organ, combined with the powerful voices of the chorus, who sang with sincere enthusiasm; the wonderful resonance in the huge grand hall; an admirable English tenor; Staudigl, too, who took all possible pains, and whose talents and powers you already well know; some very good second soprano and contralto solo singers; all executing the music with special zest and the utmost fire and spirit, doing justice not only to the loudest pa.s.sages, but also to the softest _pianos_ in a manner which I never before heard from such ma.s.ses; and, in addition, an impressionable, kindly, hushed, and enthusiastic audience--now still as mice, now exultant--all this is indeed sufficient good fortune for a first performance. In fact, I never in my life heard a better, or I may say one as good; and I almost doubt whether I shall ever again hear one equal to it, because there were so many favourable combinations on this occasion.

"With so much light the shadows were not absent, and the worst was the soprano part. It was all so pretty, so pleasing, so elegant, at the same time so flat, so heartless, so unintelligent, so soulless, that the music acquired a sort of amiable expression about which I could go mad even to-day when I think of it. The alto had not enough voice to fill the hall ... but her rendering was musical and intelligent, which to me makes it far more easy to put up with than want of voice. Nothing is so unpleasant to my taste as such cold, heartless coquetry in music. It is so unmusical in itself, and yet it is often made the basis of singing and playing--making music, in fact."

To Jenny Lind, Mendelssohn wrote:--

"The performance of my 'Elijah' was the best performance that I ever heard of any one of my compositions. There was so much go and swing in the way in which the people played, and sang, and listened. I wish you had been there."

[Ill.u.s.tration: MADAME CARADORI-ALLAN

(1800-1865)

_The original soprano in Mendelssohn's "Elijah."_]

The opinions of the professional critic and the composer have been given; the impressions of a cultured amateur in the audience may therefore appropriately follow. The subjoined extract is from a letter written by the late Mrs. Samuel Bache, of Birmingham (mother of those gifted musicians, Francis Edward and Walter Bache), to her nephew, Mr.

Russell Martineau, M.A., in which she gives a full account of the Festival:--

"EDGBASTON, _September_ 4, 1846.

"... Wednesday morning 'Elijah' was performed, and of this I cannot exaggerate my reverential admiration. The old admirers of Handel, who always crowd to 'The Messiah,' which they _must not_ miss whatever else they give up, would be shocked to hear anyone confess a greater, a more refined and spiritual influence exercised by Mendelssohn over the mind and heart; but to me it is so undoubtedly, whether _in part_ from too great familiarity lessening the impression in Handel's case, I am not quite sure. I think it is that Mendelssohn's whole nature is profoundly educated; that his adaptation of the music to the meaning is not of that broad unmistakable kind which even an uneducated ear can comprehend, but is of that refined and far-reaching nature which carries along with it in fullest sympathy, mind, heart, and soul, be they cultivated ever so highly. If I could send you my scheme [word-book] of 'Elijah' with my own remarks, you would at once see what I mean; one instance must suffice now--the Widow entreating Elijah's 'help' for her sick son receives this answer, '_Give me_ thy son.' Then follows his prayer for G.o.d's help that he again may live.

The 'Give me thy son' expressed all that religious reliance, that confidence in power from above which already a.s.sured the prayer's fulfilment; and Staudigl being Elijah, Mendelssohn's every intention was carried out. Then the contrast between the 'Baal music' and Elijah's and the Israelites' prayers and adoration is finely and truly maintained. To select beauties where the whole is so perfect seems nearly impossible. There is one song deep in my heart, like 'the Lord is mindful of His own' from 'Paul,' which I should call _the song_ of the oratorio--namely, the angel's comfort to Elijah in his despondency, 'O rest in the Lord, wait patiently for Him, and He shall give thee thine heart's desires,' &c. And one quartett of surpa.s.sing power and beauty, viz., 'O! every one that thirsteth.' The choruses I consider quite uncommonly impressive; no _noise_, all _music_ and _meaning_, and some of almost unparalleled power and grandeur. Such a triumphant first performance has, I should think, seldom been known....

"And where was your cousin Edward [Bache] all the time? He was in the orchestra, very near his old master, Mr. [Alfred]

Mellon, and our kind friend Mr. Flersheim, and thus had the great advantage and enjoyment of hearing nearly all the performances and taking his part on the violin; it has been a great stimulus to him and an encouragement."[50]

[Footnote 50: F. Edward Bache was then a boy of thirteen. His name does not appear in the official list of the Band; but Mr. Andrew Deakin's recollection of the event confirms the statement in Mrs.

Bache's letter.]

At the same time Mrs. Bache wrote to her sister, Mrs. Martineau, the wife of the Rev. Dr. James Martineau, as follows:--

"Let me tell you that Mendelssohn's n.o.ble oratorio of 'Elijah' was even more than I had expected, and I had _very_ great expectations. To see him conducting was worth anything. He seemed inspired, and might well be forgiven for something of self-reverence, though he looked all humility; and when he came down from his chair when it was all over, he seemed all unstrung as if he could no more. The interest that invests that man is quite inexpressible, and indeed I never felt, as I have done throughout this week's Festival, the _greatness_ of a truly great _composer_; what are all the performers compared with him!"[51]

[Footnote 51: I am much indebted to Mr. Russell Martineau, and the surviving members of Mrs. Bache's family, for their kind permission to use these interesting extracts.]

In a letter ("Leipzig, _September_ 28, 1846"), written in English, to his Birmingham host, Mr. Joseph Moore, Mendelssohn said:--

"I have now returned home, found all my family as well as I might have wished, and, while I think over the events of this last journey, I cannot help addressing these few lines to you in order to express once more the most sincere and most heartfelt thanks for your very kind reception, and for the friendship you have again shown to me during my stay at your house. Indeed, the first performance of my 'Elijah'

exceeded all the wishes which a composer may feel at such an important moment, and the evident goodwill of all the artists in the orchestra, as well as the kindness with which the audience received the work, will be as long as I live a source of grateful recollection. And yet it seems to me that I should not have enjoyed so great a treat as thoroughly and intensely as I did, if it had not been for your kindness and continued friendship, and for the comfortable home which you offered to me during those days of excitement. Our quiet morning and evening conversations with Mr. Ayrton and Mr. Webb are to my mind quite connected with the performances at the Town Hall, and form an important part of _my_ Musical Festival at Birmingham; and while I should certainly never have a.s.sisted at one of them if it had not been for our very old acquaintance, and while I accordingly owe to you the whole of the treat which this first performance of 'Elijah' afforded me, I must at the same time thank you no less heartily and sincerely for the quiet and comfortable stay, and the friendly reception at your house, which enhanced all those pleasures so considerably. That your health may now be quite restored again after the fatigues you have undergone, and that we may soon meet again (either in your country, or once more in mine), and that you will continue the same kindness and friendship which you have now shown to me, and which I always met with from you since so many years, is the most earnest wish and hope of

"Yours very truly and gratefully,

"FELIX MENDELSSOHN-BARTHOLDY."

In spite of Mendelssohn's protest, "Elijah" was immediately followed by two Italian "selections" and a Handel chorus! If the Committee tried their skill at providing an anti-climax, they admirably succeeded.

At the concluding concert, on Friday morning, the final chorus of Handel's "Zadok the Priest" was set down for performance. Almost at the last minute it was found that there was no music for the preceding Recitative printed in the word-book.[52] The Committee were in a fix, and then they suddenly thought that Mendelssohn might be able to help them in their hour of need. He was sitting in the Vice-President's gallery, enjoying the performance, when the chairman of the Orchestral Committee, the late Mr. J.F. Ledsam, went to him and stated their difficulty. Mendelssohn at once proceeded to the ante-room, and, in a few minutes, composed a recitative for tenor solo, with accompaniment for strings and two trumpets. The parts were expeditiously copied by the indefatigable Goodwin, and the whole recitative was performed _prima vista_ by Mr. Lockey, a quintet of strings, and the two trumpet players. The audience were entirely ignorant of the circ.u.mstance of this impromptu composition, and doubtless thought that they were listening to music by Handel.

[Footnote 52: The words of this Recitative, probably written by the Rev. John Webb, first appeared in the word-book of the 1837 Festival, just after the accession of Queen Victoria. They supplanted those beginning "When King David was old," first sung in 1820. These new (Victorian) words were also used at the Festival of 1840, but not in 1843.]

Through the kindness of the late Dr. W.A. Barrett and Messrs. Goodwin and Tabb, it is possible to give the score, together with Mendelssohn's felicitous postscript:--

[Music: RECIT. TENOR. The Lord G.o.d Almighty, who ordereth all things in heaven and on earth, hath anointed His handmaid, to be ruler over the nations, to gladden the hearts, the hearts of His servants, Let the trumpets blow, let the trumpets blow, And let all the people rejoice, rejoice and say,

[_Chorus_--"G.o.d save the Queen."]]

"Composed expressly for this Festival, and for Mr. Lockey, with _many_ thanks for--

[Music] and for [Music]

"by me,

"FELIX MENDELSSOHN-BARTHOLDY.

"Birmingham, August 28, 1846."

Mendelssohn left Birmingham the same day and came to London, "where,"

he says, "my only important business was a 'fish dinner' at Lovegrove's at Blackwall; after which I stayed four days at Ramsgate for sea air, and ate crabs, and enjoyed myself with the Beneckes." The late Mrs. Benecke, for whom Mendelssohn had a particular affection, remembered that he was in most cheerful and excellent spirits during his visit at the seaside, and that he often referred with great satisfaction to the first performance of his "Elijah." Although his stay at Ramsgate was so short, he there began to write out the pianoforte arrangement of the oratorio, and worked at it several hours daily.