A Hundred Years of Elijah

New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 380, 4 October 1946, Page 10

A Hundred Years of Elijah

HE performance of Mendelssohn’s Elijah by the Auckland Choral Society celebrated the 100th birthday of that work. The chorus sang as if they had sung this music many times, which I think they have; the soloists, especi-. ally Stewart Harvey, sang as if they had just discovered the work, which they probably had, and which was all to the good, being very refreshing; and the orchestra was so little heard as to subscribe wholeheartedly, no doubt, to the choir’s "Hear our cry, O Baal." One listener at least recalled George Bernard Shaw on the subject. Fifty years ago he wrote, and what he wrote about England and Elijah in 1896 is still true of New Zealand and Elijah in 1946; "There is no falling off in the great popularity of Elijah. This . need not be regretted as long as it is understood that our pet oratorio, as a work of religious art, stands together with the poems of Longfellow and Tennyson, sensuously beautiful in the most refined and fastidiously decorous way, but thoughtless. That is to say, it is not really religious music at all." Yet Elijah still rivals the Messiah in choral popularity. To quote G.B.S. again: "Far from desiring to belittle such innocent enthusiasm, I rather echo Mr, Weller’s plea that ‘Arter all, gen’Imen, it’s an amiable weakness.’ "