Elijah — oratorio

Composed barely a year before his death, Elijah's oratory is described by some as the greatest achievement in Mendelssohn's work. His contribution to the restoration of the works of the Leipzig cantor to the concert repertoires also had an impact on the composer himself: Elijah is kept in the Baroque oratory type after the works of Handel and Bach; after all, Mendelssohn's idiom is noticeable. He interweaves simple recitatives, arias, and choirs — the basic building blocks of oratory — with more experimental forms: Elijah's dramatic exclamation precedes a grooved overture aiming attacca to the opening Hilf, Herr! , and in the recitative he includes a part of the choir playing the role of a people and commentator in the work — a function drawn from the tradition of the ancient theater, but also from the passion of Bach. It is noteworthy that the oratory is composed in two languages: English and German; an approach so precise and clever that the audience of the British Isles particularly appreciates oratory-cantata works since Handel's time, and to this day the performances of Bach's passion are often performed in English translation. Thus, Mendelssohn provided Elias with great vitality in the specific musical environment of Albion.

The oratory was popular from the moment of its premiere on August 26, 1846 at Birmingham City Hall, which immediately inscribed Elijah in the canon of the genre. Despite the success - described in the press as a triumph - Mendelssohn made some revisions to the work before the April performances in 1847, which were hosted by Queen Victoria. The German version premiered on the composer's birthday, February 3, 1848 — a few months after Mendelssohn's untimely death. The turn of the 19th and 20th centuries brought a cooler reception of oratory, which was criticized for the superficial beauty devoid of the religious depth present in the works of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Wagner, with scathing comments describing Elijah as a work “hopelessly, terribly, irreversibly Victorian.” The gaze warmed at the turn of the millennium returning to the original positive reception, especially appreciating oratory as the pinnacle achievement in Mendelssohn's work valued by both performers and the audience.