Elijah
National Arts Centre Orchestra
Helmuth Rilling, conductor
With the Ottawa Bach Choir, Ottawa Choral Society
and Cantata Singers
At the National Arts Centre in Ottawa on Wednesday
In 1985, Helmuth Rilling conducted the National Arts Centre Orchestra for the first time. It resulted in a remarkably thoughtful and sensitive interpretation of J.S. Bach's B Minor Mass.
Twenty-three years later and after seven return visits, the founder of Stuttgart's Gachinger Kantorei in 1954 and the Bach Collegium in 1965 was back to conduct Mendelssohn's oratorio Elijah.
Over the years, Rilling has opened up to works other than those in Bach's repertoire, albeit mainly those with choral and vocal focus. Among the works he has performed here are Haydn's Nelson Mass and Mozart's Requiem, both in 1987, Haydn's Creation in 2004, and Rilling's musically fascinating interpretation of Verdi's Requiem in 1998, filling the NAC's 2,200-seat Southam Hall and bringing audiences to their feet.
Rilling returned in 1989 and 2006 to again perform the B Minor Mass. He has also recorded Brahms's German Requiem, with Donna Brown as one of the soloists. The Ottawa soprano has often worked with Rilling, both in Germany and in Oregon at the summer Oregon Bach Festival.
The German conductor is loyal to his soloists. All four of this Elijah team – soprano Elizabeth Keusch, mezzo-soprano Roxana Constantinescu, tenor James Taylor and Canadian bass-baritone Nathan Berg – have worked extensively with him, the latter two with the NAC Orchestra in his interpretation of Mozart's Requiem.
Mendelssohn's version of this ”sacred opera” based on the Old Testament was commissioned by arguably the oldest festival of modern times, the Birmingham Festival. The 1846 production was sung in English, although Mendelssohn had written the text in German and composed the music in accordance with that language's rhythmic patterns.
It is evidently a later version that Rilling chose to perform. Elijah is a ”crossover” between the traditional oratorio inherited from Bach and Handel, with clear influences from both Handel's dramatic chorus and structural writing and Bach's meditative, reflective moments between descriptive music and extended arias.
Rilling's profound knowledge of the works he conducts and his full musical concentration bring all these stylistically different elements into one wonderful Mendelssohn flow, clearly constructed with a constant pulse, an instrumental crispness, a musical vitality, as well as a meaningfulness to each of the words.
The NAC Orchestra responded with fervour and virtuosity to Rilling's musical direction and was in perfect balance with the 150-person choir constituted of three of Ottawa's major choirs: the Ottawa Bach Choir, the Ottawa Choral Society and the Cantata Singers, all prepared by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's choirmaster Duain Wolfe, a frequent guest in Ottawa since Pinchas Zukerman took the helm of the National Art's Centre's musical ensemble.
The four soloists constituted a homogeneous group of first-rate singers. Keusch has a wide ranging and intense voice. Constantinescu's clearly shaped voice, purely angelic, was also a demoniac Jezebel. Taylor's perfect oratorio voice lifted the roles of Obadiah and Ahab into the more reflective sphere. Finally, Berg, in the role of the prophet Elijah, is a remarkable vocal and human presence.
After this Mendelssohn interpretation, one understands why many specialists call this Elijah the most accomplished of 19th-century oratorios.
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