Customer Reviews

Mendelssohn: Elijah

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Subject pretty sums it up. The soloist, choir and orchestra perform exceptionally for the conductor to deliver a wonderful performance you will want to listen to again and again. A plus for me is the text from this recording matches the G. Schirmer, Inc. score, ISBN 0-7935-4559-5, that my church choir will use in its performance. This recording is making it very easy to learn my part.

This is a re-release of the older Angel recording. A wonderful performance with all the singers at their peak. Fisher-Dieskau is one of the best Elijah's I have ever heard. Text is in English.

This is an original sound recording made by EMI in 1968 and is still the standard by which one should enjoy Mendelssohn's Elijah. With Gwyneth Jones, Nicolai Gedda, Janet Baker and Dietrich Fisher-Dieskau what more could you ask for in a performance of one of the great masterpieces of music. The libretto, originally in German, was translated into English by William Bartholomew who Mendelssohm called a translator 'par excellence.' Enjoy-enjoy-enjoy!

The oratorio that the public loves and critics love to bash just won't go away. George Bernard Shaw said people who like it were the kind of folks that thought pretty blond haired girls were angels, and it is true that Mendelssohn's work never provides a soul-moving emotional experience. But oh what exquisitely lovely melodies coupled with some properly rousing choruses! Although some very fine singers have recorded the Elijah, this one has never been surpassed. Janet Baker has the perfect style for this oratorio, Gedda and Fischer-Dieskau provide beautiful tone with great phrasing and diction and the conductor seems to have an instinct for the right tempos. O.K. so its just a chocolate truffle and not a "religious" experience..enjoy this truffle. It's far and away the best.

In general, I tend to like fast performances of big works. This recording is an exception. This performance, led by Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos, one of the longest 'Elijah's, coming in at almost 140 minutes, is an exception. This is due in large part to the soloists, all performing at the peak of their considerable powers, all having been given ample leeway by the conductor to exercise their glorious vocal and dramatic gifts. This is not to say that Fruhbeck de Burgos just sits back, but the interpretation IS expansive, and borders on the Wagnerian. In the other recordings I have heard of this oratorio, over which the conductors pretty much let the piece play, Part I comes off quite a bit better than Part II. In this recording, the conductor's firm hand evens out the impact of the two halves for a more satisfying total experience. As noted in one other review, the articulation of the chorus could be better, but overall, the recording is more than satisfactory.

This is an fair recording. The solo parts are clear and easy to follow. On the other hand, the choral passages leave much to be desired. they are over stated and distorted. One would need a score of the music in order to follow the singing and understand the words being sung.

Not a review, this is about your ad. Your ad for this piece is highly incomplete - You fail to mention Dieter Fischer-Dieskau as one of the vocalists - he is maybe the most famous baritone of our time

This EMI Classics recording of Mendelssohn's Elijah is many things. First of all a very worthy and good contender in a small field of recordings of "Elijah" sung in English. Second the recording captures a really great line up of

soloists who bring to life one of Mendelssohn's best works Rafael Frubeck de Burgos and the Philharmonia Orchestra

and Chorus accompany them with beautiful sound and the EMI engineers put the whole thing together in a bargin package. The only "fly in the ointment" is no libretto. If one is needed you can always download one off the internet. Highly Recommended.

If you are religious and like Oratorios this one is a must. It has many memorable solos. If you aren't religious, you might like it anyhow.

JL

Mendelssohn's ELIJAH has been loved, hated, belted out by innumerable church and community choirs, performed with white-tie panache, and ignored. It's a difficult work to categorize and even more challenging to review helpfully, since it often appears to be several works in one.

So let's just start at the beginning: the Introduction ('As God the Lord of Israel liveth') and Overture are one of music's greatest kickoffs. The funereal opening chords lead directly into Elijah's (a baritone) full frontal challenge, quoted in parentheses and underscored by a solemn belt of brass.

If the full work does not live up to this magisterial opening, it would be unfair to judge it too harshly on these grounds. By the time you work in the chorus(es), the full orchestra, and the other soloists, the work is inevitably complicated and sometimes diluted in its impact.

Nevertheless, I believe ELIJAH is a great work, though one that is habitually underrated. It does not have the popular oomph of MESSIAH nor the fireworks of pieces frequently visited by pops orchestras for their name/tune recognition and mass appeal. Yet it offers excellent soloists and choir an opportunity to excel and make some beautiful music together and separately. It also presents a discerning audience with the occasion to appreciate artists overcoming a high degree of difficulty on their way to entertainment that in the right hands rises from time to time to the level of the spectacular.