The History of Mendelssohn's Oratorio 'Elijah'

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FELIX MENDELSSOHN-BARTHOLDY At the Age of 26. From a Pencil Drawing by Mücke, in the possession of Mrs. Victor Benecke.
London: NOVELLO AND COMPANY, Limited AND NOVELLO, EWER AND CO., NEW YORK.
1896.
LONDON: NOVELLO AND COMPANY, LIMITED, PRINTERS.

I have been asked to say a few words as introduction to this volume, and I do so with pleasure.
To the mass of music-loving people of this country, however, I believe that Mendelssohn requires no introduction. It has been the fashion in some quarters to speak of him slightingly, nay injuriously; but this will pass, and he needs no defence—certainly not when Elijah is in question. In England the oratorio has taken its place, if not on a level with The Messiah, very near it; and what more does any work of musical art require? Fortunately every additional fact that is elicited about this great composer testifies all the more to his insight, to the depth and warmth of his feelings, and to the indefatigable earnestness with which he worked until he had realised the entire meaning of his text and expressed it in music to the utmost of his power and with all the dramatic force that it was capable of. The letters now given—many of them for the first time—abound in instances of this.
George Grove.
Lower Sydenham, January 27, 1896.