Crouch End Festival Chorus - 40th Anniversary Concert - Mendelssohn ELIJAH

For its 40th anniversary concert, Crouch End Festival Chorus will sing Mendelssohn’s oratorio Elijah, one of the most enduringly popular choral works. First performed at Birmingham Town Hall in 1846 in front of an audience of 2,000 and conducted by the composer, it immediately attracted great critical acclaim.

Its dramatic narrative has the prophet Elijah raging against the false prophets of Baal, who have incurred the anger of God and brought about a drought. After Elijah wins the standoff against the false prophets, he exalts God to bring back rain to the ‘thirsty land’. Persecuted by a furious Queen Jezebel, Elijah takes refuge in the wilderness, where he is consoled first by angels and then – after a violent storm, an earthquake and a fire – by God himself. Finally, he wins the day and ascends to heaven in his chariot of fire.

Mendelssohn loved the choral music of Bach and Handel and his oratorio reflects their influence. In this performance, the role of Elijah will be sung by James Platt with his beautifully sonorous ‘barrel-chest of a bass voice’ (The Times). The choruses are full of contrasting emotions, vivid storytelling and extreme dynamism, playing to the strengths of Crouch End Festival Chorus and its conductor David Temple.

In the 40 years since it gave its first concert, Crouch End Festival Chorus, under the leadership of its co-founder David Temple MBE, has grown to be one of the world’s leading and most versatile symphonic choirs. With over 140 singers on its books, CEFC stages its own promotions in the UK’s leading concert venues. Its repertoire extends from the Renaissance through more traditional choral music to works by leading contemporary composers including John Adams, Hans Zimmer and Philip Glass. CEFC regularly commissions new choral music and champions under-represented composers in its concerts.

In July, CEFC made its eighteenth appearance at the BBC Proms in a critically-acclaimed performance Verdi’s Requiem with the BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales, and Ryan Bancroft.

CEFC is also in great demand for live promotions and recordings, and has recently released a critically-acclaimed recording of Parry’s Prometheus Unbound and a celebration of the choral music of the Mendelssohn siblings, Felix and Fanny, both on the Chandos label. The choir also recorded Elgar’s great oratorio The Kingdom this year with soloists Francesca Chiejina, Dame Sarah Connolly, Benjamin Hulett and Ashley Riches, and the London Mozart Players, conducted by David Temple, to be released by Signum Records. Earlier this year, CEFC joined Sir Karl Jenkins and the Philharmonia Orchestra for his 80th birthday concert at London’s Royal Albert Hall and, in July, Andrea Bocelli and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at BST Hyde Park.