REVIEW: Elijah, City Hall
NICHOLAS Kraemer is noted as a conductor of historically informed performances so this was never going to be a John Barbirolli account of Mendelssohn's famous oratorio, although he was keen to emphasise the work's drama.
Victorian trappings of piety went for a start – it was a pity he couldn't jettison as well the more recently added, underlying rumbling during Elijah's It Is Enough and immediately after.
Disconcerting for some would have been reduced string sound coming from the Hall – who were excellent throughout – which was in keeping with Kraemer's apparent desire for clarity of texture and transparency.
The four distinguished soloists were split across the stage, Janice Watson and Susan Bickley off left, Andrew Kennedy off right, and moving to more central positions to sing their arias, with only Elijah – the superb Roderick Williams – fixed in the middle.
The treble soloist in the first half, Xavier Wright, was on the front row of the chorus altos.
For all Kraemer's brisk tempi (125 minutes for Elijah is quick), occasionally with Bach-ian overtones, patently so in the chorus' The Fire Descends From Heaven, it seemed go down very well.
Andrew Kennedy's If With All Your Hearts was curiously shaped, intelligently, but in declamatory fashion – the purging hand of Kraemer?
Above all there was the Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus, which sang out of its collective skin with intoxicating vigour and intent.
If ever a chorus were up for a work, the Phil were here. They were magnificent.
Buy the Sheffield Telegraph and the Property Guide every Friday. To subcribe CLICK HERE
MORE:
Local News
Local Sport
Arts Guide
Community News
Listings Guide
Restaurant Guide
Letters
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Sheffield
Wednesday 23 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 12 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 10 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: North east
