{TABLE} St Paul ........ Mendelssohn {/TABLE} MENDELSSOHN'S first oratorio, St Paul, has always been overshadowed by his last, Elijah. In the latter, the composer sought an intense, dramatic style; and on the way he offered us examples best and worst musical qualities. The best things in St Paul do not equal those in Elijak but St Paul is far more consistent. Indeed, listening to it performed by the Guinness Choir and Orchestra at the National Concert Hall on Saturday night, I thought, the main barrier to popularity is not its musical quality, but its unrelieved seriousness.
For me and, I suspect, for almost everyone in the audience, this was a first complete, live performance. Like many people I spoke to afterwards, I was pleased - even surprised - at how absorbing this 2 1/4 hours of music proved to be.
The Guinness Choir was in fine form, and sang in well enunciated German. Tone and intonation were good, while choir and orchestra were responsive to the very well paced, flexible direction of conductor David Milne. The prominent organ part was neatly, though sometimes too loudly, played by Peter Sweeney. The only serious problems were the choir's occasional lapses of ensemble during complex passages.
Mendelssohn modelled much of St Paul on the large choral works of Bach and Handel, but with truly Romantic results. In typical Baroque style, narrative is carried by recitative - lots of it! Mary Callan Clarke (soprano), Margaret Killian (alto), James Nelson (tenor) and John Milne (bass) treated this recitative with a nice mix of dramatic flow and pious sincerity. It has fewer good solos than Elijah, but the arias saw some rewarding singing, even though John Milne, in the title role, was rougher in tone and pitching than I have heard him before.