Mike Aaronson of the Waverley Singers talks about Elijah

Transcript

00:00So we're doing Mendelssohn's Elijah in St Andrew's Garrison Church in Aldershot on Saturday

00:10the 22nd of March. It's a fantastic piece. It's one of the most dramatic works for choir

00:18and orchestra. We're going to be about 90 singers and we've got an orchestra of over

00:23140. We've got four fantastic soloists. We've got professional BBC singer baritone Andrew

00:30Rupp and we've got three young singers completing their studies at the Guildhall School of Music

00:36and Drama in London. And they are absolutely wonderful and I did a lovely interview with

00:43them the other day and it's worth watching that because they are such good fun to talk

00:49to and hear them talk about the work. Elijah is actually a very relevant story for our

00:55times because this is a man who was a prophet but was an outcast in his own land because

01:05he spoke truth to power. He told the king and the queen that they were worshipping false

01:10gods and he called down the real god to save the people from drought and famine and for

01:19his pains he was banished to the desert where he eventually died. But then of course the

01:23end of the story is he goes up to heaven in a great cloud of fire and that's the image

01:28that's most often associated with Elijah. So it's a story with great relevance for our

01:34times but also as I say a fantastically dramatic work, really, really fun to sing and if anybody

01:41hasn't yet bought a ticket to come along and watch it I strongly recommend it.