Elijah - Mendelssohn
Just two years after his 150th anniversary performance with Our Lady's Choral Society, Proinnsias O Duinn was back at the National Concert Hall last night to conduct the RTE Philharmonic Choir and the RTECO in Mendelssohn's best-loved oratorio, Elijah.
The quality of the RTE Philharmonic Choir is on an upwards curve these days, evidenced here not only through improved internal balance (the basses now provide a stronger foundation and the tenors are altogether more solid) but also through an often freer and more natural inflection of the sung text - less patter, more meaning.
This choir's developing range was clear from early on, and though their "Baal, we cry to thee" may have been a bit underpowered, and their "Be not afraid" more jaunty than majestic, their "Woe to him" was brought off with real vehemence.
O Duinn drove the music with considerable though not always focused energy (the handling of the recitatives needed to be a lot tighter) and in securing the forward momentum he rarely seemed to find time to attend to the softer dynamic markings.
Ian Caddy was the dependable Elijah, forward in projection and rather hard in tone. The American tenor Charles Workman, with a fastish vibrato, favoured a strenuous delivery which suggested too constant a state of agitation.
The young Dublin mezzo soprano Bridget Knowles, firm and clear, handled herself with the natural authority of an oratorio singer. Her pacing and scaling carried the words and their import with a sometimes thrilling vibrancy. On the evidence of this performance she is clearly a native singer we need to hear more of.
Soprano Cara O'Sullivan, by contrast, seemed more anxious to engage in a sort of moment-by-moment dramatisation which, however successful vocally, rarely seemed fully apt to either text or music. The contributions of boy soprano Macdara O Seireadain as The Youth were sung from a side balcony with effective plaintiveness.
