The Boxford Masques At Welford Park Wed. 26th - Sun 30th July 2017 All A ATMusical Community SEA! Play for West Berkshire By Geraldine McCaughrean Directed by Ade Morris Designed by Libby Todd Musical direction by Dave Stephens Choreography by Debbie Camp Evenings at 7,30 Saturday 2.30 and 7.30 Tickets £6 - £11.00 £2.00 extra on door Gates open at 5.30 /12.30 Sat. Bar from 6.00pm BRING A PICNIC Welford Park RG20 8HU Tickets from Watermill Theatre Box Office 01635 46044 or online at www.watermill.org.uk The Programme Felix Mendelssohn Elijah There will be an interval of 20 minutes at the end of Part One. Conductor: Cathal Garvey Orchestra: Southern Sinfonia Soprano: Sarah Helsby Hughes Alto: Hannah Pedley Tenor: Nick Sales Baritone: Paul Carey Jones Treble: Daniel Blaze The alto solo in Movement 28 will be sung by Kay Douglass. We are grateful to the following organisations for their support: The Englefield Charitable Trust This programme was printed by Newbury College Print Room. 5 Programme Notes by Jane Hawker Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) Elijah The Composer Mendelssohn was a German composer, virtuoso pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. He was born into a privileged, well-connected and intellectual Jewish family, but was not brought up in that faith and was baptised as a Christian at the age of seven. His parents recognised that he was a child prodigy, and encouraged rather than exploited his talents. He had piano lessons in Paris with Marie Bigot, whose playing had been admired by Haydn and Beethoven. He gave his first public concert aged nine, and had his first composition published when he was thirteen. The Mendelssohns had connections with the family of Johann Sebastian Bach, and an aunt had a collection of Bach's manuscripts. In 1829, at the age of twenty, Mendelssohn arranged and conducted the first performance of St Matthew Passion since Bach’s death. This great oratorio had in effect been forgotten, and its rediscovery brought Mendelssohn widespread acclaim and informed the rest of his short musical life, especially in his composition of Elijah. Some criticised him for harking back to the Baroque period when other young composers, such as Berlioz and Liszt, were pushing boundaries in their work. The enduring appeal of Mendelssohn's works is due to his thorough grounding in composition techniques of the ‘old masters’, combined with the lyricism and expressiveness of his own period. Like his compatriot Handel, Mendelssohn spent much time in Britain where his work was well received. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert 6 were great admirers of his music. Prince Albert inscribed a copy of the libretto of Elijah with the words: 'To the noble artist who, surrounded by the Baal-worship of false art, has been able, like a second Elijah, through genius and study, to remain true to the service of true art.' On a visit to Britain in 1847, Mendelssohn performed Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.4 and conducted his Scottish Symphony with the Philharmonic Orchestra in front of the Queen. The tour left him physically and mentally exhausted, and the death of his sister Fanny just months later caused him to have a series of strokes, leading to his death at the age of thirty-eight. Robert Schumann was one of his pallbearers, and he is buried in Berlin. Newbury Choral Society performed Elijah fifteen times between 1889 and 2001, including to mark significant dates such as the thirtieth anniversary of the founding of the Society; to celebrate the choir's Golden Jubilee; and in 1979 to say farewell to conductor John Russell after thirty years at the helm. Elijah Ever since his performance of Bach's St Matthew Passion, Mendelssohn had wanted to compose his own oratorio, and in 1836 he presented St Paul in Dusselfdorf. He intended to follow this with a second oratorio, and on studying the dramatic story of the prophet Elijah in the Book of Kings, he knew he had found his subject. Pastor Julius Schubring, Mendelssohn's spiritual mentor and librettist for his previous works, was tasked with producing the text, which he took from the German Lutheran Bible. Schubring felt strongly that the aim of the oratorio should be to emphasise the sacred nature of the story, whereas Mendelssohn wanted to convey the human drama, portraying the universal through the personal. In this regard, he was following in the footsteps of the great Protestant oratorios of Bach 7 and Handel, in their depictions of Christ not only as a spiritual symbol but as a man. The structure of Elijah echoes that of the Baroque oratorio, with soloists singing arias and recitative, and the chorus acting as the voice of the people, furthering the plot and commenting on the action. At the same time, the contemporary audience could have been in no doubt from the very start that they were about to hear something new: Schubring argued for an overture, in the tradition of oratorios, but Mendelssohn wanted to take the audience straight to the heart of the action. The first sound they hear is that of Elijah intoning his prophesy, followed by the overture, and then the choir enters, already at fortissimo, begging God for mercy from their suffering caused by drought. Work on the German libretto was well under way when Mendelssohn was asked to write a new work for the 1846 Birmingham Triennial Music Festival (which ran from 1784 to 1912). He decided that this would be a fitting premiere for Elijah. He asked William Bartholomew, a poet and composer himself, who had already translated many of Mendelssohn's previous works, to translate the oratorio into English. This turned out to be more of a collaboration, with Mendelssohn supervising the translation in minute detail. Mendelssohn wrote the soprano part for the 'Swedish Nightingale', Jenny Lind, with whom he was in love. She organised and sang in a sell-out performance of Elijah at Exeter Hall in London in 1848, as a fundraising event to found a musical scholarship to promote the talent of young people. Its first recipient was the fourteen-year-old Arthur Sullivan. After the 1846 premiere of Elijah in Birmingham's Town Hall, The London Times critic wrote: 'The last note of Elijah was drowned in a long-continued unanimous volley of plaudits, vociferous, and deafening. It was as though enthusiasm, long- checked, had suddenly burst its bonds and filled the air with shouts of exultation. 8 Mendelssohn, evidently overpowered, bowed his acknowledgements, and quickly descended from his position in the conductor’s rostrum; but he was compelled to appear again, amidst renewed cheers and huzzas. Never was there a more complete triumph - never a more thorough and speedy recognition of a great work of art.' The Plot and Libretto Part One At the beginning of the oratorio, King Ahab and his wife, Queen Jezebel, whose historical reign took place in the ninth century BC, have established the worship of Baal in place of the God of Abraham. Elijah, a fervent and fiery prophet even by Old Testament standards, prophesies that God will punish the people of Israel by sending a severe drought to their land. Starved and suffering, the people pray for mercy, and are encouraged to repent by the faithful believer Obadiah. An angel appears to Elijah and sends him to the home of the widow of Zarephath, whose dying son Elijah miraculously restores to health. King Ahab accuses Elijah of causing the drought he prophesied, to which Elijah responds that it is the King’s worship of Baal that is to blame. He challenges the priests of Baal to demonstrate their idol’s supposed power by praying for him to light a fire under a sacrificed bullock. Despite their frantic prayers, the followers of Baal do not succeed; by contrast, Elijah's prayers to Jehovah are answered and fire descends from heaven. The people proclaim a miracle, and Elijah instructs them to rise up and kill the false god’s prophets. Obadiah implores Elijah to pray for rain, and the long drought finally comes to an end. 9 Elijah As God the Lord of Israel liveth, before whom I stand; there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word. Overture 1 The People (Chorus) Help, Lord! Wilt thou quite destroy us? The harvest now is over, the summer days are gone, and yet no power cometh to help us! Will then the Lord be no more God in Zion? The deeps afford no water; and the rivers are exhausted! The suckling’s tongue now cleaveth for thirst to his mouth: the infant children ask for bread, and there is no one breaketh it to feed them! 2 Soprano, Alto and the People (Duet and Chorus) Lord, bow thine ear to our prayer! Zion spreadeth her hands for aid; and there is neither help nor comfort. 3 Obadiah (Recitative) Ye people, rend your hearts, and not your garments, for your transgressions: even as Elijah hath sealed the heavens through the word of God, I therefore say to ye: forsake your idols, return to God: for he is slow to anger, and merciful, and kind and gracious, and repenteth him of the evil. 4 Obadiah (Aria) ‘If with all your hearts ye truly seek me, ye shall ever surely find me.’ Thus saith our God. Oh! That I knew where I might find him, that I might even come before his presence! 5 The People (Chorus) Yet doth the Lord see it not: he mocketh at us; his curse hath fallen down upon us; his wrath will pursue us till he destroy us! For he, the Lord our God, he is a jealous God; and he visiteth all the fathers’ sins on the children to the third and the fourth generation of them that hate him.