Linn is absolutely thrilled to launch a new recording partnership with the Consone Quartet. The first period instrument quartet to be selected as BBC New Generation Artists, the ensemble will embark on a complete Felix Mendelssohn string quartets cycle. Playing on gut strings, thus creating a warm, grainy soundworld akin to analogue photography (as violinist Agata Daraškaite puts it), the four musicians have drawn inspiration from editions of the time, including Ferdinand David’s own scrupulously marked-up parts, to present fresh accounts of the E flat major quartet ‘1823’ and Op. 44 No. 3. These two works paired together – the former is an early work, the latter is the composer’s penultimate achievement in the genre – allow for some revealing comparisons between styles at different points in Mendelssohn’s life.

After a first volume praised by the press, including an Editor’s Choice in Gramophone, the Quatuor Van Kuijk concludes its complete recording of Mendelssohn’s string quartets with op.44 nos. 2 and 3 and the Quartet op.80, which bears the mark of the sudden death in 1847 of his sister Fanny, to whom he was very close, at the age of only forty-two. As Stéphane Goldet writes in the booklet: ‘The act of resistance that is the Quartet op. 80, written in a single burst during the summer of 1847, its overwhelming “No, not that, not her!” shouted by four instruments for twenty-five minutes, was to be the composer’s last completed work. The four movements of this “confrontation with grief” (Bernard Fournier) in F minor are to be played con dolore, although that marking never appears in the score.’ She goes on to quote Brigitte François-Sappey: ‘This “Requiem for Fanny” might be called “Death and the Young Woman”. As in Schubert’s last two quartets, the strings shiver in tremolos over ostinato pedals, like death knells.’

REVIEWS:

With Mendelssohn Complete String Quartets Vol. 2, the Quatuor Van Kuijk complete the cycle of the composer’s string quartet output. Included here are the String Quartets No.4 in E Minor Op.44 No.2, No.5 in E-flat Major Op.44 No.3 and No.6 in F Minor Op.80 (Alpha Classics ALPHA931 outhere-music.com/en/albums/mendelssohn-complete-string-quartets-vol-2). Both Op.44 quartets receive outstanding performances, but the real gem is Op.80, the last work Mendelssohn completed before his death and written in an outburst of grief following the death of his beloved sister Fanny. Described as “a confrontation with grief” it’s a striking work in which the composer’s pain is palpable, the performance here being one of quite stunning emotional impact and remarkable sensitivity and intensity. The CD runs to a commendable 83 minutes, giving Quatuor Van Kuijk an edge over competing sets, many of which run to three volumes. Not that they need any advantage – it’s difficult to imagine any playing coming close to this.

-- The Whole Note

In 1970 Kurt Masur took over the direction of one of the best orchestras in Germany and the world: the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. One year later, in 1971, these recordings of the 12 Youth Symphonies by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy were made. They are testimony to the emergence of a fruitful artistic relationship between Kapellmeister and musicians that was to last 26 years. Bold artistic spirit meets musical excellence here, leading to a high level of listener enjoyment. Kurt Masur's masterful interpretation provides a revealing insight into the imagination of a talented young composer. These recordings now shine in new splendor through a loving analog remaster.

With its first album, ‘In the Shadow’, the Trio Adorno consciously addresses three compositions, which have hitherto been overshadowed by more famous works and are therefore rarely heard in concert, with the aim of bringing them into the light and into the concert hall. Mozart’s piano trio in D minor, KV 442, is barely known, as the composer never completed it himself. Therefore, it still stands in the shadow of his other piano trios. Martinů’s chamber works – among them the piano trio in C Major – are even more rarely played as his orchestral works. And also Mendelssohn’s piano trio in C minor, op. 66, is much less often heard than its predecessor in D minor, Op. 49. All the more, it’s a pleasure to explore these works together with the Trio Adorno, which received tuition from important figures in the world of chamber music – like among others the Beaux Arts Trio and the Alban Berg Quartet – and which can now look back on a long lasting performing career.

The Quatuor Van Kuijk celebrates the tenth anniversary of its creation and its sixth recording for Alpha with a complete set of Mendelssohn’s quartets, of which this is the first volume: it opens with the Quartet op. 13, composed in 1827, when he was only eighteen years old. ‘A trial run? No, a masterstroke! In every movement of this first quartet, we are constantly aware that the sense of urgency is the blood that runs through its veins. Never before have we heard such tension maintained over an entire quartet’, writes Stéphane Goldet in the album’s booklet notes.

Kubelík’s star began to wane in the years before World War I. Some felt he had gone off the boil but it was more a question of his public turning to new idols, Elman and Vecsey. In 1915 he retired to take composition seriously, not resuming his concert career until 1920. He toured Britain 20 times from 1900 to 1934 (packing the Royal Albert Hall with 7,000 people in 1926) and the U.S. many times up to 1938 (6,000 heard him at the New York Hippodrome in 1920-21). He commanded a wide range of music and in Central Europe he is remembered as a great musician. He died in Prague on 5 December 1940. The main fruits of Kubelík’s five-year break were his first three Violin Concertos, published in Prague in 1920. Of the eventual series of six, Pavel Šporcl says: ‘They are technically very demanding and musically extremely interesting.’ The First Concerto in C major, which he plays here, is a melodious Late Romantic work, well tailored to a front-line virtuoso’s strengths, and it should not have fallen out of the repertoire. Kubelík emerged from his purdah to première it at the Grosse Musikvereinssaal in Vienna on 29 January 1917, Nedbal conducting the Tonkünstler Orchestra.

In this new album of music by the young Mendelssohn, Fabio Biondi and Europa Galante explore the influence of Classicism on the Italian repertoire, while researching some of the composer’s lesser known works. Mendelssohn is rarely spoken of as a child prodigy, and yet he showed extraordinary talent from a very young age. This program of works composed when he was between eleven and eighteen, selected by Fabio Biondi and his ensemble Europa Galante is proof. “Here you can perceive,” writes the Italian violinist and conductor, “this knowledge of the past uniquely combined with an already profoundly Romantic sensitivity: Mendelssohn shows both the teachings of Bach and the Baroque school, and the flamboyant spirit of the young Romantics.”. Taking inspiration from his predecessors in the German tradition, Mendelssohn polished his counterpoint, and practiced the fugue – as Mozart had done before him on discovering Bach – and the concerto. We discover a young composer well versed in Baroque and Classical forms, which he embellished with his own sparkling charm.

This album is also an opportunity to discover some of Mendelssohn’s lesser-known works, including the noteworthy Salve Regina sung by the soprano Monica Piccinini, several solitary fugues, a Largo and Allegro for piano and strings and a Concerto for violin and string orchestra in D minor. “This is a profound work,” says Biondi, who also plays the violin solo here, “with a rich orchestral part, which does not merely accompany the soloist, but is also fully engaged in all its sections, and a particularly interesting violin part. It conveys a constant good humor, in a huge kaleidoscope of formulations, while always retaining its formal construction.”

Classical Music

Note: This Blu-ray Audio Disc is only playable on Blu-ray Disc players and not compatible with standard CD or DVD players.

Filled with Mendelssohn’s signature freshness and lightness of touch, the Violin Concerto in D minor and the Sonata, Op 4 are youthful products but written with an assurance which is startling in its maturity. The substantial earlier concerto gives a foretaste of the originality and soaring inspiration which has made the Violin Concerto, Op 64 one of the most enduring works of its age. Acclaimed as “an unquestioned master of the violin” (American Record Guide), Tianwa Yang has quickly established herself as a leading international performer and recording artist, with highly acclaimed discs of works by Sarasate, Piazzolla and Wolfgang Rihm.

Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1

"...slowly, as my musical path kept unfolding, I got to the point where more and more I was able to let go of my preconceived notions aout the Violin Concerto and more clearly start to see and hear my own voice in it. Over the years I got to know so much more music by Mendelssohn, from the inside out, and I felt the language become more fully my own. When working with Kees Bakels on it a couple of years ago things started to really fall into place, and last May when performing it with the Amhem Philharmonic I really was all of a sudden struck by a distinct feeling that I can only describe as falling in love all over again with this magical piece. Certain details in the score seemed to appear completely new to me and the idea of approaching the work with the same collaborative energy as in chamber music made me experience it completely afresh. The combination of passion, grand emotions and at the same time lightness and elegance, such characteristic traits for Mendelssohn, fell completely into place. To feel this way about such a familiar piece was revelatory and I knew I wanted to share these discoveries, if you like, with many more people." (Liza Ferschtman)

MENDELSSOHN: Concerto for Violin, Piano and Strings / Violin

MENDELSSOHN Violin Concerto in e. 1 Symphony No. 4 • Nicholas McGegan, cond; 1 Zsolt Kalló (vn); Capella Savaria • CENTAUR 3287 (56:03)


Before one chooses to skip this review, please note that these are different versions than usual of the thrice-familiar works presented here. The Violin Concerto is given in its original 1844 version, before the composer made several changes to the orchestration, and the “Italian” Symphony is performed here in the second version from 1834, in which the composer made numerous changes to the second, third, and fourth movements. The fact that he never got around to revising the first movement has convinced most orchestras, even to the present day, to play the original score, but Nicholas McGegan has here chosen to tack the original (untouched) first movement onto the revised remaining movements.


The ear picks up many, if not all, of the textural changes in the Violin Concerto: despite the use of a smallish orchestra playing period instruments, the sound is remarkably darker, almost ominous-sounding (against such a small orchestra, the timpani is particularly forward), although part of this impression is also conveyed by violinist Kalló’s method of inflection in his phrasing. It should be noted that he is not an imported soloist but, rather, the concertmaster of Capella Savaria, and a fine one he is, too. The liner notes by Katalin Tamás also make reference to differences in “the usage of the theme in various registers” as well as “in some unpredictable harmonic solutions.” But in the end, different edition or not, the final question is: is this performance convincing? And the answer is a resounding yes. McGegan is one of those very rare conductors, like Minkowski and Norrington, who know how to make a period orchestra “speak,” to give it nuance and expression, and in the end that is always more important than the specific medium (period instruments or whatever) being used. There is no question in my mind that this is one of the premier recordings of this warhorse. When the music shifts to the uptempo lilt of the third movement, Kalló is right there in mood, giving a lift to his bowing that practically spurt the notes out of his instrument; and here, in particular, the winds of Capella Savaria contribute most remarkably to the overall texture.


The “Italian” Symphony, likewise, gets off to a rousing start, the winds and strings joyously bouncing their way through the music. There is a noticeable accelerando at the end of this movement, driving the music home with panache. One of the first noticeable differences comes at the beginning of the second movement, where the “pilgrims’ march” is changed—subtly, but enough to make a difference in how the themes cohere. (Also, by using such a small orchestra, the clarinets sound so clear that they almost come across as recorders, a unique effect in my experience.) The third movement’s changes are largely in orchestration, too, but there is also a very surprising change from major to minor in the playing of the horns in their later reappearance that does not appear in the original version of the symphony. This harmonic change ties in to the brief minor theme of the full orchestra that is present in both versions.


The last movement Saltarello has a few changes, mostly in texture, but thanks to the incredible clarity and transparency of the orchestra and McGegan’s almost torrid pace, it sounds quite different from most versions. I did detect a few musical alterations here and there: little ones, but enough to make the movement sound more cohesive musically than it usually does (note particularly the swirling strings, a nice touch and a very original one). With such clear textures, even the string pizzicatos have more “bite” than they normally do, and the swirling string figures almost have the effect of a swarm of bees or hornets. I should also mention that these performances are given at A=430, a shade below modern pitch, for those who keep score on such things.


Overall, then, a most interesting and, I think, valuable addition to the Mendelssohn discography. Bravo to Kalló, McGegan, and the orchestra! And bravo, too, to engineer Miklós Csikós, who has kept everything forward and sharply etched in the soundspace so that no detail is lost.


FANFARE: Lynn René Bayley

Classical Music

MENDELSSOHN: Symphony No. 2, 'Hymn of Praise'

Composed to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press and taking Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony as his model, Felix Mendelssohn’s immense Symphony No. 2, sub-titled ‘Hymn of Praise’, enjoyed great success following its 1840 première in Leipzig. Using texts from the Lutheran Bible, he created a stirring symphonic cantata in which the whole world unites in a triumphant song to the Heavenly Father. Jun Märkl, whose Naxos recordings have gained high praise, leads an outstanding line-up of artists in this thrilling performance.