The History of Mendelssohn's Oratorio "Elijah" Part 14

"All those pa.s.sages I do _not_ mention here are quite excellent in the way you propose. Add a note for the serv_ed_ him and wors.h.i.+pp_ed_ him. You are quite welcome to it.[64]

"You see that I really answer by return of post, for yesterday evening your letter came, and this morning this leaves. But I do not understand why there is such a _hurry_ about the _Pianoforte arrangement_ being finished, and why you say there is hardly time to wait my reply. For you know that it cannot be published a day before Simrock has also done it, and that will take much time still. However, I make haste answering, and shall also do so with your next. I do not think that I shall be able to be in London before the 13th April. But I am sure that is early enough, for I am sure everything which you take in hand is right.

"Always yours truly,

"FELIX MENDELSSOHN."

[Footnote 62: The music examples in this letter refer to the Soprano air "Hear ye, Israel," No. 21.]

[Footnote 63: Bartholomew had written:

[Music: Be not afraid, for I will strengthen thee!]]

[Footnote 64: Bartholomew did not add the note after all. See No. 23, "The Lord hath exalted thee," bar 15, to which this refers.]

"LEIPZIG, _March_ 3, 1847.

"My dear Sir,--I have just received your letter of the 24th, and hasten to reply. I like all the pa.s.sages of the translation you send me with but two exceptions. In No. 30, 'that Thou would'st please destroy me' sounds so odd to me--is it scriptural? If it is, I have no objection, but if not, pray subst.i.tute something else. And then in the new No.

8 [the widow scene]--the words from Psalm vi. which you hesitated to adopt are, of course, out of the question; but I also object to the second part of the sentence which you propose to add to the words of Psalm x.x.xviii. {6}, viz.: 'I water my couch,' etc. [Psalm vi., 6.]--I do dislike this so very much, and it is so poetical in the German version. So if you could subst.i.tute something in which no 'watering of the couch' occurred, but which gave the idea of the tears, of the night, of all that in its purity. Pray try!

"But what is this? Does Staudigl not come? Mr. Buxton told me last autumn he was _sure_ to be there. I heard it since from all sides. And now he does not come? What is to become of my 'Elijah' then? _I cannot_ write to Staudigl and persuade him to come, but I really do not know how the performance could match that of Birmingham without him--indeed I do not know how it could go. Of course Lockey would be _quite_ sufficient for _all_ the Tenor solos! But Staudigl! That word of yours has given me a great deal to think of.

"Always very sincerely and gratefully yours,

"FELIX MENDELSSOHN-BARTHOLDY."

"_Leipzig_, _March_ 10, 1847.

"My dear Sir,--Many thanks for your letter of the 1st. I really do not know what a synopsis of the oratorio should be good for--on the other hand, I do not see the harm it could do--and, therefore, leave it to you to decide this point as you think best. I shall send you the metronomes in a few days; the organ part I do not forget.

"But tell me, should the whole series of performances not be better postponed till _autumn_? What with your uncertainty about Staudigl, and with all this uproar in London about the two opera parties, and with Jenny Lind coming or not coming, and with the 'Tempest' or not the 'Tempest,' and with the difficulty you and Mr. Buxton have to make the parts ready--would not such a delay be beneficial to all of us, especially to the old prophet himself? Not to me certainly, who like to shake my English friends by the hand the sooner the better--but to all others?

"And now many thanks for your friendly advice in the opera affair. Some time before you wrote your letter to me, I had already informed Mr. Lumley that I should not be able to produce an opera of the 'Tempest' in the season 1847; and, according to the advice my friend Klingemann gave me some days before your letter came, I have since again written to Mr. Lumley (about the same words as you suggest), have asked Klingemann to take care of seeing the letter safely delivered, and have sent to him a duplicate of it. So that the whole of your advice, the same which my friend Kl. gave, has been followed literally, and I should be very glad if thus the affair would come to an end. Of this I think I may be sure, that Mr. Lumley will not continue his advertis.e.m.e.nts of my opera after he heard that I had taken the resolution _not to write_ the 'Tempest' for the season 1847....

"And now forgive this dry letter, and believe me, yours very truly,

"FELIX MENDELSSOHN-BARTHOLDY."

Reading between the lines of the last-quoted letter, it is easy to see that Mendelssohn was much annoyed at the public announcements, made by Mr. Lumley in his opera prospectus of 1847, to the effect that "The celebrated Dr. Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy will likewise visit England, and produce an Opera expressly composed for Her Majesty's Theatre, the Libretto, founded on 'The Tempest' of Shakespeare, written by Scribe." These advertis.e.m.e.nts were, to say the least, very premature, as Mendelssohn had not only disapproved of parts of the libretto, but had not written a note of the music! The suggestion contained in the above letter that he (Mendelssohn) should postpone his visit till the autumn, must have caused some consternation amongst his London friends, especially as all arrangements had been made for the various performances of the revised oratorio, which were to be given under his own personal direction. Bartholomew--ever resourceful and indefatigable--at once wrote the following letter to the composer:--

"2, WALCOT PLACE, HACKNEY, _March_ 19, 1847.

"My dear Sir,--Yours of the 10th came to hand last night, and in reply to it I can tell you twenty reasons why _you should come_, and not one why _you should not come_. Upon the faith of your letter, which Buxton has been obliged to quote from in order to prove his warranty to treat for your coming with the Committee at Exeter Hall, he has made the engagement for _you_ with _them_, and _they_ have made _their_ engagements with _others_ for April 16th and 23rd; and, I think, the 28th. The Manchester Hargreaves Society have fixed their date for one of the intervening days and advertised it.... _Everybody_ is now in town expecting you and anxious to _hail_ your appearance. _n.o.body_ will be in town in the autumn. (Is that a reason why you should come then?) If you don't come, 'Elijah' would go--for go it must--but I mean it won't _go well_....

"You have no idea how they are inundated with enquiries at Newgate Street [Ewer & Co.'s] as to when 'Elijah' will be published.... G.o.d bless you, dear Sir!

"W. BARTHOLOMEW."

Whatever influence this letter from Bartholomew may have had upon its recipient, and doubtless others wrote in the same strain, Mendelssohn duly came to London--alas! for the last time--at the beginning of April, 1847, the year in which he died.

The first performance of the revised version of "Elijah"--the form in which we now know the oratorio--took place, under the auspices of the Sacred Harmonic Society, at Exeter Hall, London, on Friday, April 16, 1847, conducted by the composer. Miss Birch, Miss Dolby (afterwards Madame Sainton-Dolby), and Mr. Henry Phillips replaced Madame Caradori-Allan, Miss Hawes, and Herr Staudigl, who had "created" their respective parts at Birmingham. "Lockey would be _quite_ sufficient for _all_ the tenor solos," wrote Mendelssohn, and so he proved to be.

Madame Sainton-Dolby records: "After I had sung 'O rest in the Lord,'

Mendelssohn turned to me with tears in his eyes and said, with his bright frankness of manner, 'Thank you from my heart, Miss Dolby.' I shall never forget that look of brightness." Mr. W.H. c.u.mmings, then a chorister of the Temple Church, sang alto in the chorus at the first London performance. He and some other boys were asked to help, as the alto part lay rather high for men's voices.[65] Master c.u.mmings, as he was then, sat in the front row of the altos, and his enthusiastic singing attracted the notice of Mendelssohn, who asked the Temple chorister his name, which he wrote on one of his (Mendelssohn's) visiting cards, and gave to the youthful singer.

[Footnote 65: The alto part in oratorio choruses was always sung in England by men's voices (counter-tenors). It was not till the following year (1848) that some ladies were admitted into the alto division of the chorus at the Sacred Harmonic Society. The change was made when Costa began his reign as Conductor of the Society. Costa introduced a similar innovation at the Birmingham Festival of 1849, the first he conducted, and the first after the production of "Elijah." The male altos, however, greatly predominated on that occasion. The numbers were--ladies, 17; gentlemen, 59. At this Festival Mario sang "Then shall the righteous," which he finished on the upper A flat!]

The first London performance was not without some humour. _The Times_ said: "Mr. Perry, the leader, was constantly beating time with his fiddle-stick in such a manner as to obstruct the views of the Conductor and confuse the attention of the instrumentalists."[66] A Frenchman, seated on the orchestra behind the chorus, was so excited with the performance that, at the close, he effusively embraced Mendelssohn and tried to kiss him!

[Footnote 66: Mr. George Perry ("leader" of the Sacred Harmonic Society from its foundation in 1832) was also the composer of an oratorio, ent.i.tled "Elijah, and the Priests of Baal," which was first performed at the Concert Room, St. George's Bridge, Norwich, on March 12, 1819.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Fac-simile of Metronomic times for "Elijah" in Mendelssohn's handwriting. The note, signed "W.B." is in the handwriting of William Bartholomew. Slightly reduced from the original, in the possession of F.G. Edwards._]

Three other performances were given in Exeter Hall, and under the same auspices, on the 23rd, 28th, and 30th of the same month (April), and were conducted by Mendelssohn. These four concerts attracted crowded audiences, and brought into the exchequer of the Sacred Harmonic Society a clear profit of 356.

The second performance (April 23) was honoured by the presence of the Queen and the Prince Consort. What the Prince felt on that occasion found graceful expression in the following tribute to Mendelssohn's genius, which he wrote in the book of words he had used at the concert:--

"To the n.o.ble Artist who, surrounded by the Baal-wors.h.i.+p of debased art, has been able, by his genius and science, to preserve faithfully, like another Elijah, the wors.h.i.+p of true art, and once more to accustom our ear, amid the whirl of empty, frivolous sounds, to the pure tones of sympathetic feeling and legitimate harmony: to the Great Master, who makes us conscious of the unity of his conception, through the whole maze of his creation, from the soft whispering to the mighty raging of the elements.

"Inscribed in grateful remembrance by

"ALBERT.

"Buckingham Palace, April 24, 1847."

The original of this is now in the possession of Frau Wach, of Leipzig, Mendelssohn's younger daughter. In the few hours which elapsed between its receipt from the Palace and its presentation to Mendelssohn, the Sacred Harmonic Society had a _fac-simile_ copy made, which was carefully sealed up. When the news arrived of Mendelssohn's premature death, the Prince Consort at once gave permission for this copy to be lithographed and circulated.

The following extract from the 1847 Report of the Sacred Harmonic Society records the presentation of the above "compliment" to Mendelssohn:--

"Both Her Majesty and Prince Albert were graciously pleased to express their gratification at the Performance, and the attention paid to them; and the Prince a few days afterwards condescendingly inscribed in a Book of the Words of the Oratorio, an elegant compliment to Dr. Mendelssohn, in his native tongue, which was handed to him on the morning of his departure from England, by a deputation from your Committee, and received by him with marked feelings of pleasure and grat.i.tude.

"It cannot be described how deeply gratified Mendelssohn was on the presentation to him of this affectionate token of sympathy. His rapturous exclamations of delight, as over and over again he read each word of the inscription, his repeated expression of fears of his inability adequately to acknowledge this touching mark of appreciation, were again and again renewed."[67]

[Footnote 67: "The Sacred Harmonic Society: a Thirty-five Years'

Retrospect, by Robert K. Bowley, Treasurer. _Privately printed._ 1867." Mr. Bowley was one of the deputation of two officers of the Society who waited upon Mendelssohn to present him with the Prince Consort's "affectionate token of sympathy." He was one of the oldest members of the Sacred Harmonic Society, and subsequently became Librarian, and then Treasurer. In 1858 he became General Manager of the Crystal Palace, which office he retained till his death in 1870.

He also originated and carried out the Handel Festivals.]

Mendelssohn also conducted performances of the revised work at Manchester (Hargreaves Choral Society) on April 20, and at Birmingham, April 27--a total of six performances, conducted by the composer, within a fortnight. At Birmingham, where "Elijah" was given for Mr. Stimpson's "benefit," Mendelssohn not only refused to take any fee, but also declined to accept his travelling expenses--thus he generously showed his appreciation of Stimpson's invaluable services at the initial performance in 1846.

"Elijah" was published in Germany by Simrock, Bonn; and in England by Messrs. Ewer & Co., who for some years previously had been Mendelssohn's sole publishers in this country. The then proprietor of the firm of Ewer & Co. was Mr. Edward Buxton, whose real business was that of a wool-broker, and who "had only taken to music publis.h.i.+ng for his attachment to the art." The relations between the composer and his English publisher were of the most cordial nature. "Whatever you write, Dr. Mendelssohn," said Mr. Buxton, "I will publish, and pay you any terms you like to ask." Here was an ideal publisher, from a composer's point of view. Mr. Buxton had no reason to regret his words; and that Mendelssohn fully appreciated his publisher's generous offer, is abundantly shown in the "terms" he mentioned for the English copyrights of his compositions.[68]

[Footnote 68: It may be of interest to give the "terms" quoted by Mendelssohn for the English copyrights of some of his works. The information is derived from original letters from the composer to Buxton. The D minor Trio, 10 guineas. Books 4 and 5 of the "Lieder ohne Worte," 15 guineas each; Book 6, 24 guineas. "17 Variations Serieuses," 8 guineas. "Festgesang" (which includes the familiar tune now a.s.sociated with "Hark! the herald angels sing"), 4 guineas.

"Scotch Symphony" (pianoforte arrangement), 20. Sonata for pianoforte and cello in D, 12 guineas. Six four-part Songs, Op. 59 (which includes "O hills! O vales!" the "Hunting Song," &c.), 10 guineas.

"Scherzo, Notturno, and Wedding March" (from "Midsummer Night's Dream"), pianoforte duet arrangement, 15 guineas; the whole work, "consisting of 9 other pieces (except the Overture) would be the same again as those 3." Violin Concerto and "Hear my prayer," "20 guineas for both together." C minor Trio and Te Deum in A, 30.