Mendelssohn: Elijah, MWV A 25, Op. 70 (Early Versions)

Description

Elijah – Early Versions document a decade that ranges from the first conceptional ideas of 1837, hence directly after the completion of St. Paul, to the world premiere of Elijah on 26 August 1846. Mendelssohn had already worked out the plan for a libretto with his friend Carl Klingemann in 1837. Shortly thereafter, Klingemann sent a text which the composer then passed on to his friend, the theologian Julius Schubring. Then began a breathtaking logistical marathon in which Mendelssohn, during the final phase, raced to prepare the world premiere in Birmingham from Leipzig, while simultaneously taking the elaboration of the libretto increasingly into his own hands; indeed, he was, as usual, still changing, deleting, and even adding entirely new numbers at the rehearsals – with the result that the performance was ultimately only an essay, a pre-world premiere of the great work which he was later to subject to several more revisions.