Haydn's instrumental concertos represent only a relatively small part of his output, and were mostly written when the composer was still finding his mature style. The Double Concerto, composed in 1756, is not an especially profound work, although its association with Haydn's frustrated affair with Therese Keller is touchingly revealed in the intimate and expressive Adagio, where Csaba and Gothoni, sympathetically accompanied by the strings of the Kuhmo Virtuosi, create an expressive atmosphere that vividly conveys the music's special emotional significance. Canino uses a harpsichord for his performance with Accardo and the ECO, and that instrument's relatively bright tone suits the clear textures of the score particularly well. Nevertheless, subtle balance between both piano and violin, and soloists and orchestra make Csaba's and Gothoni's elegant and stylishly phrased account immensely engaging.

Mendelssohn's youthful D minor Concerto for violin, piano and strings was composed in 1823 and shows the boy composer's delight in sheer virtuosity and abounding melodic invention. In this piece, Csaba and Gothoni play with flair and sensitivity to realize the music's varied dramatic content, sample the affecting warmth and lyrical poetry in the second movement or the sparkling agility in the concerto's overtly exuberant finale. Kremer and Argerich offer even greater expressive fluency and flamboyance, but Csaba's and Gothoni's version, which effectively places the soloists at the front of the texture, will have wide appeal for its comparably arresting blend of broad lyricism and effervescent technical brilliance.

-- Gramophone [1/1995]

Violinist Tianwa Yang turns her attention to one of the great 19th century violin concertos, coupled with two of Mendelssohn's youthful yet astonishingly mature works.

REVIEW:

Young violinist Tianwa Yang has exceptional technique, and her vision in the great E minor concerto is unfailingly intelligent. The first movement is taken a touch on the slow side, giving the music added weight and seriousness. In the finale, too, Yang refuses to rush or indulge in empty showmanship, while the Andante’s singing melodies do just that. If there is any down side to her interpretation, it is this: older, wiser violinists such as Nathan Milstein shape the many moments of passagework to more purposeful effect, just as a masterful singer understands that coloratura expresses virtuosity but also can be phrased and articulated so as to heighten the emotion and intensity of the phrase. Yang isn’t quite in that league yet, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with the playing as such. The accompaniments, similarly, won’t compare to the best versions featuring major orchestras, but they offer distinguished contributions nonetheless.

What makes this disc such a smart one, though, is the inclusion of the youthful D minor concerto and the F minor violin sonata. Most Mendelssohn discs couple another major violin concerto (usually Bruch’s or Tchaikovsky’s), and God knows we don’t need another recording of those works any more than we need another Mendelssohn E minor concerto. Both youthful works are vintage early Mendelssohn, and he was not a composer who invariably got better with age. Yang plays them very well indeed, and there’s far less competition here than in the more famous companion pieces. Pianist Romain Descharmes accompanies very sympathetically, and both in the concertos and the sonata the engineering is very clean and well-balanced. In sum, the couplings make this disc worth acquiring even if you’d never think of buying another version of the E minor concerto. As for Yang, she remains an artist to watch.

-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

The performance of the Italian Symphony is most enjoyable, its style unexpectedly effervescent. The outer movements are taken fast but the resilient orchestral playing prevents any feeling of glossiness and the delicacy of the wind playing in the slow movement is most fetching. Similarly the opening of the third movement is gracious, the horns in the trio having an almost elfin quality. The recording is good, warm with plenty of body, but less transparency, although there is a difference between fink and piano here that is not always noticeable in recordings from this source. In short this is very enjoyable, the more so as Szell observes the first movement repeat.

-- Ivan March, Gramophone [3/1977, reviewing Symphony no 4 on LP]

The second installment of the dogma chamber orchestra's ambitious Mendelssohn project: this time the program includes a special triad with Symphonies Nos. 4 to 6, plus the Violin Concerto in D minor with the wonderfully versatile Viviane Hagner as soloist. With this entertaining program, one can listen to a great genius growing, for the 6th symphony at the latest fires the young Felix from the baroque models right up to the height of his time. But even the beginning is ambitious: the 12-year-old prodigy opens his C minor symphony with a Grave introduction based on the old French model; deep contrapuntal seriousness pervades the first movement, which is followed by an almost ethereal Andante that evaporates at the end. The unclouded finale, which - as in all three symphonies - follows attacca, is all the more powerful. In the E-flat Major Symphony, the young Mendelssohn takes an enormous step forward. The baroque gesture recedes in favor of a genuinely classical tonal language; the two trios in the minuet middle movement provide solo tasks for basses and violas, and the rapid guttural finale in prestissimo leaves audience and players breathless. Mendelssohn learned to play the violin from the only slightly older Eduard Rietz. Rietz's influence is clearly audible in the D minor Violin Concerto, especially in the echoes of contemporary French virtuoso literature. Viviane Hagner celebrates the typical variety of strokes with relish and audible pleasure, which reaches its exuberant climax in the lively Rondo.

One can hardly imagine these works being given a more sympathetic reading.

There’s something about a string Quintet that I’ve always found far more appealing than a Quartet. While many composers thrive on the economy of means that a quartet necessitates, they can also be inspired to special heights by the extra layer that a quintet supplies. That extra instrument makes all the difference. I’d far rather listen to Mozart’s great string quintets than his quartets, and Schubert’s quintet is perhaps the greatest work of chamber music ever composed. So it was with a positive predisposition that I turned to this Mendelssohn disc, and I wasn’t disappointed.

Nineteen years separate these two works. The first quintet was written when Mendelssohn was only 17, the same year in which he produced his Midsummer Night’s Dream overture, while the second dates from the last year of his life. The difference in style is fairly evident. No. 1 is full of youthful exuberance, though still combined with breathtaking artistry, while No. 2 is more thoughtful and restrained.

The first quintet, for some reason given second on this disc, is unremittingly sunny, from the pastoral first movement, through the affectionate intermezzo and busy scherzo to the playful finale. The second, on the other hand, is more subtle and nuanced. The first movement’s first subject on the violin takes off in a typical "flying" theme while the others provide busy momentum which propels the music forward to its sunny conclusion. The second movement is a quirky (parody?) minuet, while the third is a funereal piece of sombre majesty, and the finale is a sparkling vivace. As an additional bonus we are given the original second movement (Minuet) of the first quintet: the current one is a replacement written as a memorial to Mendelssohn’s friend, the violinist Eduard Rietz, to whom the Octet had been dedicated.

The performances from the Fine Arts Quartet are ideally suited to this kind of music. They tailor their sound perfectly to the very different demands of each movement and carry off the technical issues flawlessly: listen to the skilful double-stopping at the end of the first quintet’s first movement. At no stage, however, does the music sound academic or pushed: the musicians work together as an integrated unit and listen to each other to "gel" seamlessly. I get the feeling that they really enjoyed making this disc. The Naxos sound is close in a warm acoustic, quite fitting for this music.

So unfamiliar as this repertoire is, it repays the effort in getting to know it, and one can hardly imagine these works being given a more sympathetic reading.

-- Simon Thompson, MusicWeb International

The artists write: “In February 2009, on a date very close to the celebration of Mendelssohn’s 200th birthday, we got together for the first time in a quintet lineup in order to perform a small concert in the form of a public rehearsal. The repertoire was rapidly chosen: it had to include at least one piece by Mendelssohn. After that successful experiment, we spontaneously decided upon the composer’s second surname for our new quintet…” Next to Mozart the two String Quintets by Felix Mendelssohn are probably the most known and famous string quartets in the classical genre. This album is the second from the ensemble on Avi after having released their highly acclaimed first album with works by Bruckner and Zemlinsky in 2016, just 5 years prior.

Abbado’s Mendelssohn is as fresh and vivacious as ever. The Italian Symphony positively crackles with energy, and the collaboration with Branagh passes with flying colors.

It’s good to be able to report that Abbado’s Mendelssohn is as fresh and vivacious as ever. His LSO recordings of the symphonies (on DG) were very fine, but this new Berlin account of the Italian Symphony – recorded live at the Berlin Philharmonic’s 1995 New Year’s Eve Concert – positively crackles with energy, especially in the whirlwind finale. The second movement’s procession is beguilingly phrased and Abbado even convinces me that the weak Minuet is worth its place in this otherwise utterly marvellous work. The performance of Mendelssohn’s equally delightful incidental music to A Midsummer Night’s Dream is taken from the same concert, though Kenneth Branagh’s narration was added later (he projects well and the acoustics are well matched, so the result feels perfectly natural). The extracts Branagh uses fit well with Mendelssohn’s music (of which we hear all the important numbers) and concentrate on the central tussle between Titania and Oberon and the latter’s confused conspiracy with Puck to untangle the love lives of the young Athenians. It’s a heroic attempt to capture some of the magic of the play, and Branagh passes with flying colours (though I’m not totally convinced by Puck as a leprechaun). A delightful disc, then, beautifully packaged – though, curiously, without programme notes.

Performance: 5 (out of 5), Sound: 5 (out of 5)

-- Stephen Maddock, BBC Music Magazine

By 1845, only two years before his death, Mendelssohn at 36 was an eminent 'establishment' figure—but one whose creative imagination no longer had its first freshness. I entirely agree with the American sleeve-note writer that the Quintet's crowning glory is its slow movement, "an elegaic Adagio in D minor, remarkable especially for the way Mendelssohn uses his small ensemble to suggest deep contrasts of light and shadow". And though the elves and sprites of the Scherzo, marked Andante scherzando, sound a little middle-aged in comparison with their nimbler cousins in the Octet and other earlier marvels, they are certainly not without charm. In the active flanking movements Mendelssohn's motivation seems impersonal, like a return to eighteenth-century delight in superlative craftsmanship per se. Here the Guarneris and Zukerman greatly help the composer with their urgent drive. Some of the tremolo down below emerges just a bit hard in the first movement, but their assualt on the finale's con fuoco counterpoint makes for an exciting finish. They find the grace for the Scherzo, and the expressive intensity for the Adagio.

-- Gramophone [2/1980, reviewing the original LP release of the Mendelssohn Quintet]

The Sonata dates from the same year as A Midsummer Night's Dream Overture, so not too much should be made of its composer's youthfulness, or of the allusions to Beethoven's Sonata, Op. 101 and echoes, in the finale, of Weber. As Schumann wrote in 1835, these show not weak dependence on the 17-year-old composer's part but spiritual affinities. Lydia Artymiw gives a marvellously fluent performance of this impressive work, informed with much intelligence and musical perception, that receives a lifelike recording, the CD having just a shade more immediacy than the excellent LP. Actually, the Introduction and Rondo capriccioso date from two years earlier yet are fully characteristic of Mendelssohn and relate to Op. 16 No. 2, a gossamer scherzo from fairyland. These pieces again are beautifully turned, showing a fine sense of balance and proportion. The outstanding Op. 28 Fantasia, also, is fiery, immaculate, and highly enjoyable.

-- Gramophone ]1/1985]

MENDELSSOHN: Songs without Words (Selection)

Albrecht Mendelssohn Bartholdy was the grandson of Felix Mendelssohn. He was also a polymathic intellectual a prestigious jurist, political scientist, and one of Germanys observers to the Treaty of Versailles negotiations in 1919. Conscious of his heritage he also wrote songs, taking texts from Eichendorff, Goethe, Heine and the folk collection Des Knaben Wunderhorn, as had Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn. These ardent love songs were inspired by his student Magdalene Lena Schoch who, soon after her graduation, became the composers indispensable and trusted colleague and confidante. Through songs Albrecht Mendelssohn Bartholdy was able to reveal and profess his true sentiments, in a form seemingly acceptable to his family. And by setting to music poets whom Felix and Fanny had chosen earlier (Eichendorff, Goethe, Heine, and the folk song collection Des Knaben Wunderhorn), Albrecht paid tribute to his ancestors while consciously joining the lineage of the Mendelssohn familys musical tradition. Albrechts commitment to the cultural heritage of his hometown is reflected in his frequent choice of lesser\-known poets from Karlsruhe.

MENDELSSOHN Elijah • Paul McCreesh, cond; Rosemary Joshua (sop); Sarah Connolly (mez); Robert Murray (ten); Simon Keenlyside (bar); Jonty Ward (tr); Gabrieli Consort; Gabrieli Players; Wroc?aw P Ch; Chetham’s C Ch; North East Youth Ch; Taplow Youth Ch; Ulster Youth C Ch; William Whitehead (org) • SIGNUM SIGCD 300 (2 CDs: 135:58)


Period-performance practice is often loosely associated with smallish forces—but it doesn’t need to be; and although McCreesh happily claims responsibility for the first recording of St. Matthew Passion using a one-to-a-part vocal contingent, he’s also been interested in reproducing the blockbusters of the late 18th and early 19th centuries as they were first heard, with big choruses and surprisingly large period-instrument orchestras. He’s already given us The Creation and the Berlioz Requiem in recordings that approximate the forces of their premieres; now we get a period Elijah that’s modeled on the Birmingham first performance of 1846. What precisely does this mean? For the solo numbers, we have a hefty, but hardly unusual orchestral group. But to accompany the nearly 300-voice chorus, the strings are pumped up by half; woodwinds, trumpets, and drums are doubled; the ophicleide is tripled; and three serpents are thrown into the mix. The result is an orchestra of well more than a hundred. There are other big Elijah s out there, of course, but I suspect that there are none on quite this scale. I’ve heard the Mahler Eighth performed by a smaller crowd.


What’s the benefit, besides increased volume in the climaxes? Well, increased volume is not to be sneered at, but there’s a lot more. The alterations in orchestral size provide additional tonal and emotional variety; the period instruments (which include slide trumpets) provide unusual bursts of color (listen, for example to the tangy sting of the horn stabs in “Though thousands languish” or the gleam of the brass tone in “Baal, we cry to thee”). Most important, though, there’s an audible and striking shift in tonal balance. People often think of Mendelssohn’s music as light, with a treble tilt—and that’s true, say, of the Fourth Symphony or A Midsummer Night’s Dream . But it’s certainly not the case with this Elijah : McCreesh’s performance gives prominence to the bass lines—in part by the use of serpents to double the choral basses, in part by the presence of the extra ophicleides (one of which is a contrabass ophicleide, apparently the only one that still exists), in part by the use of the Birmingham organ (unfortunately dubbed in, but at least very effectively done) with its floor rattling “Grand Ophicleide” stop, in part by the use of so-called “Tower drums” (huge instruments that are in some cases tuned an octave lower). I suspect you’ve never heard the pedal point under the first choral entry so clearly; I suspect you’ve never heard “Thanks be to God!” played with such inevitable and overpowering accumulation of orchestral weight, and never heard it conclude with such depth of sound; I suspect you’ve never heard Elijah’s ascent into heaven or the final fugue thrown forth with such solidity. You might expect the weight to drag the music down; but despite the size and disposition of his forces, McCreesh manages to duplicate the energy and rhythmic vitality of the best small-group performances. If you think of Elijah as “Victorian”—in the loose sense of stodgy or sanctimonious—you’ll be disabused.


Not surprisingly, McCreesh offers an interpretation that stresses the dramatic. Tempos are generally mainstream, although he does resist the temptation to slow down in such moments as “He watching over Israel,” which can easily turn saccharine. I don’t mean to suggest that it’s unsubtle, much less that it lacks passages of exquisite beauty—listen to the glow in the second half of “Yet doth the Lord see it not” or the magic of the double quartet in “For He shall give His Angels charge” or the sweetness of “Blessed are the men who fear Him.” Still, you’re liable to remember this most for its unparalleled outbursts of power—for the huge sound of pleading on the first choral entry, for the overwhelming impact of the silences after “Hear and answer!,” for the shocking arrival of the fire from heaven (“Oh thou who makest”), for the sense of vastness of “Go, return upon thy way.”


As for the title role: If you’re looking for tender authority as Elijah cures the widow’s son, Keenlyside is your man; if, on the other hand, you’re looking for sheer venom as Elijah calls for the murder of the prophets of Baal, then Keenlyside is also your man. This is, simply put, a superbly rich characterization, one that captures, in glorious voice, all the expressive swings of the part. For a quick tour, try the handling of the tricky emotional terrain in “It is enough.”


The other soloists are all excellent: I especially appreciated Rosemary Joshua’s fiery purpose in “What have I to do with thee?” The chorus, which combines singers from Wroc?aw and from Britain, has a lot of younger voices: They sing with freshness, enthusiasm, and no sign of inexperience. The eight who have been picked out for the double quartet—and who are also called forth, in various combinations, for “Cast thy burden,” “Lift thine eyes,” and “Holy, holy, holy”—blend exquisitely. The orchestra is magnificent, too, and balances between soloists, orchestra, and chorus are consistently well judged.


Although I wish (as I did with their Berlioz Requiem) that we had been given a surround-sound version of this performance, the stereo engineering is first class. When you go to your shelf for a recording to demonstrate your new subwoofer, you’re not usually apt to pass by Mahler to reach for Mendelssohn; but this is surely an ideal release for that purpose. As with the Berlioz, it comes in a hard-cover book (fortunately, CD-sized, so it fits on your shelves) with detailed notes, full text, and plenty of photographs. One textual point: Mendelssohn revised the work significantly for the second performance, and McCreesh gives us the final version (with a bit of light editing to the words). This is clearly the right choice, and clearly the Elijah of choice. Want List material.


FANFARE: Peter J. Rabinowitz

MENDELSSOHN: Symphony No. 4, "Italian" / A Midsummer Night's

MENDELSSOHN: SCOTTISH & ITALIA

The child Mendelssohn developed extraordinarily rapidly after progressing, apparently late in 1819, from imitative student exercises to composing his own music. Over the next two years he tackled increasingly ambitious large-scale works, including a number of string symphonies, a Singspiel, and his first concerto, in A minor for piano, written early in 1822. The Concerto for Violin and Strings in D minor followed later that year, and the Concerto for Violin and Piano, again in D minor, in the spring of 1823; the latter was also initially accompanied by strings only, but Mendelssohn later added parts for wind and timpani, in which version it is heard here. Even between these two concertos one can hear a striking advance in the young composer’s sense of originality and mastery.

The Violin Concerto draws on Classical-era models such as Mozart, but it is also influenced by French innovations in violin writing developed in Mendelssohn’s own time, and fully exploits the evolving techniques of new virtuosos. Among them was Eduard Rietz, Mendelssohn’s teacher, the work’s dedicatee, still a teenager himself and yet leader of the Berlin Court Orchestra. There is much dazzling filigree writing here but also some deeply expressive modulations which convey an emotional maturity far beyond what one could expect from a 13-year-old composer.

Dating from six months later, the Double Concerto is an even more polished work, full of memorable melody, no less brilliant in its solo writing but astonishingly confident in its handling of material indebted to Bach, to Mozart and Beethoven and somehow none the worse for all that
The Ukrainian violinist Solomiya Ivakhiv is now based in the US, where she works as both a soloist and a teacher, including Head of Strings at the University of Connecticut. She is fluently partnered here by Antonio Pompa-Baldi, who has performed and recorded much of the supremely challenging late-Romantic repertoire: a favorite performer at keyboard festivals such as Rarities of Piano Music in Husum, he is also a member of the piano faculty at the Cleveland Institute of Music.