Music review: SCO and SCO Chorus, Royal Albert Hall, London

In this Proms performance, the SCO and SCO Chorus gave an exemplary performance of Mendelssohn’s oratorio Elijah, writes Michael Church

SCO and SCO Chorus, Royal Albert Hall, London *****

Mendelssohn’s oratorio Elijah was premiered in Birmingham Town Hall in 1846. The London press were there in droves, and as the Times put it: "Never was there a more complete triumph – never a more thorough and speedy recognition of a great work of art.”

Yet when that great controversialist George Bernard Shaw came to give his verdict, he damned it with faint praise. “You have only to think of Parsifal, of the Ninth Symphony, of Die Zauberflöte, of the inspired moments of Bach and Handel, to see the great gulf that lies between the true religious sentiment and our delight in Mendelssohn’s exquisite prettiness.” Ouch.

Scottish Chamber Orchestra Principal Conductor Maxim Emelyanychev PIC: Christopher Bowen.

And in this debate I have always been on GBS’s side. With the exception of a handful of truly inspired works – the Violin Concerto, the Hebrides overture, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream foremost among them – Mendelssohn has always seemed to me a pasticheur rather than an original composer. His string quartets ape those of his hero Beethoven, for example, but they are palely derivative rather than original. Oratorios by his other idols Bach and Handel were transparently the models for Elijah.

So why did I join the vociferous applause when it was performed at the Royal Albert Hall on Saturday? Quite simply because the performance was so impassioned that for once I could believe that this springy, brightly-coloured thing really could – at least in its closing sections – bear comparison with the greatest music.

Under the direction of Maxim Emelyanychev the Scottish Chamber Chorus gave an absolutely exemplary performance, with ferocious attack and finely controlled pianissimi, while the SCO gave brilliant support.

And led by Roderick Williams in the title role, the soloists were beyond compare, the sweet tenor of Andrew Staples contrasting with the silvery grace of mezzo Helen Charlston, and soprano Carolyn Sampson – aided by second soprano Rowan Pierce – calling down beauty from the heavens.