Duncan Ward

Programme

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy
Elijah - Oratorio for soloists, choir and orchestra, op. 70

Duncan Ward, Conductor

Maria Bengtsson, Soprano (Die Witwe)

Wiebke Lehmkuhl, Alto

Maximilian Schmitt, Tenor (Obadjah)

Georg Zeppenfeld, Bass (Elias)

Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks

Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks

It is with the greatest regret that Kirill Petrenko has had to abandon the rehearsal work already begun for the performances on 13 and 14 October of Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the exquisite soloist quartet Maria Bengtsson, Wiebke Lehmkuhl, Maximilian Schmitt, Georg Zeppenfeld (Elijah) and Chor and Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks for health reasons.

We are very grateful to Duncan Ward, who has agreed to take over the direction of the project with an unchanged programme at short notice.

about the programme

In the figure of Elijah, Mendelssohn sought to portray a prophet who was “strong and zealous, but also evil, irate and sinister”. Elijah was meant to be a flesh-and-blood human being who undergoes a radical conversion and reaches the limits of human existence. He takes the form of a militant fanatic, a resigned sceptic and finally a man of divine inspiration. The oratorio, with its protean hero, is pervaded by an unrelenting arc of tension in which Mendelssohn creates spectacular scenes of almost visceral theatricality. Listeners are virtually thrust into its various episodes – the famine, the miracles of fire and rain, the enraged masses or the prophet’s final ascension to heaven.

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