Mendelssohn: ‘Elijah’ (Gilbert, Finley, Coote, New York Philharmonic)

Mendelssohn: Elijah

Gerald Finley (bass-baritone)
Twyla Robinson (soprano)
Alice Coote (mezzo-soprano)
Allan Clayton (tenor)
Jennifer Johnson (mezzo-soprano)
Noah Sadik (treble)
New York Choral Artists (director: Joseph Flummerfelt)

New York Philharmonic
Alan Gilbert (conductor)

Avery Fisher Hall, New York
Thursday, November 11

This is the third time I have heard the New York Philharmonic, and I came away easily more satisfied than on previous occasions. Considering that one of those was Ravel and Tchaikovsky 4 with Lorin Maazel at the Proms, this was not difficult. By dint merely of coincidence – I was researching in New Jersey at the time – I heard Alan Gilbert’s inaugural subscription concert (Mahler 3) in New York last summer, and a friend’s visit to New York allowed me to hear this. I am glad to see that their relationship is blossoming. Avery Fisher Hall hasn’t improved, of course: never have I been in a concert hall – not even the Barbican – which makes everything sound quite so much as if emerging from a letterbox. This, indeed, was the biggest drawback of this performance: the acoustics levelled out orchestral detail, and were simply too much for the surprisingly small chorus (60 or thereabouts) to create sufficient atmosphere, particularly in their exchanges with Elijah himself. $12.50 (with a ludicrously large booking fee on top, as is the American way) got me a student rush ticket, one week in advance, and I had what was an ideal seat, centrally located, in the second tier. Looking down on the stalls, I could probably have done better, for this hall was far from full.

In the NYT review, the paper’s correspondent came down rather harsh on Gilbert and his forces, comparing them to an available recording by Dmitri Mitropoulos from many decades ago. I, however, have grown up with Paul Daniel’s OAE recording of the work (with Bryn Terfel and Renée Fleming), which presumably comes from a rather different direction. Nonetheless, Gilbert’s  tempi shocked me. I’ve always had a soft spot for Mendelssohn and his particular breed of classical romanticism. The prelude to Elijah ranks among my ‘greatest hits’: if mp3s could wear out, Daniel’s recording of it would have done so a good while back. Gilbert – after a less than declamatory opening statement by our Elijah, Gerald Finley – pushed the pace about as fast as it could go: dramatic it certainly was, perhaps overly so. Gilbert’s overall conception remained on the rapid side, with notable slow-downs for Finley and Coote’s broader arias. Sometimes, as in the Bachian ‘crowd’ scenes, this worked well: at others, I wished for more time to breathe, and particularly wanted more care to be taken with the under of numbers, which were cast aside, impetuously awaiting the next. That said, it was a curiously Wagnerian reading at times, particularly in its pointing out of thematic unity and the string figurations pushed so fast that they emerged Loge-esque. Gilbert also, unsurprisingly for a conductor so steeped in contemporary music, revelled in Mendelssohn’s rare moments of dissonance. What it lacked in lyricism, especially in Elijah’s passages, it made up for with orchestral fire at the most dramatic moments. On that note, the NYP (when did they stop being the NYPO?!) were on good form, especially in the winds. Some ravishing flute playing accompanied Coote’s ‘O rest in the Lord…’, though their rather flat string tone reminded me how (comparably) lucky I am in Boston.

What we had, then, was for some reason a performance summing more than its parts: it was a thoroughly enjoyable evening in the concert hall, despite a surprising number of gripes – perhaps Mendelssohn exerted his ‘guilty pleasure’ effect on me once again. Finley in the title role seemed oddly disconnected: lyricism was downplayed in favour of technical precision, though his big set-piece ‘It is enough…’ was deeply-felt. He never put me in mind of a prophet – the libretto does not allow the fragility which would suggest a more earth-bound character – and this work for me requires the suspension of disbelief in a way that, say, the St. Matthew Passion does not. That said, it was clear we were in the presence of a brilliantly charismatic artist, and his Elijah will grow. I await his Hans Sachs with intrigue (and long to hear his Oppenheimer). Of the other soloists, Alice Coote distinguished herself the the gravity of her singing, particularly at ‘O rest in the Lord…’. Twyla Robinson, despite some very wobbly vibrato, also did herself justice. Allan Clayton seemed to me too uniform in tone – especially lacking in grandeur as Ahab the king – but his final solos disproved earlier fears. Our treble and minor mezzo were equally creditable. The choir, as I have said, struggled with the appalling acoustic. Nonetheless, they did not really express the sentiments of the music until the hectoring scenes with Elijah (perhaps I am now too accustomed to the gusto of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus): nonetheless, they improved over time, and crowned the always-too-short finale beautifully.

A mixed night, but a good one.