Elijah was composed for the Birmingham Festival of 1846, just a year before Mendelssohn’s early death.  It is a work of tremendous dramatic scope, chronicling episodes in the life of the Old Testament prophet Elijah – including the contest of the gods, the miracle of raising the dead, the bringing of rain to a parched Israel and his ascension on a fiery chariot into heaven.

Mendelssohn was much influenced by the oratorios of Handel and the great choral works of JS Bach. In combining these elements with 19^th century Romanticism and drama, he created in Elijah a choral masterpiece that has enduring appeal to singers and audiences alike.