Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Music critic Charles Rosen has called Mendelssohn the greatest child prodigy the history of Western music has ever known," which is indeed evinced by the fact that he wrote for the organ from the age of 11. Mendelssohn's less well-known works are receiving new appraisal and attention. This disc of organ gems is sure to excite.

Classical Music

Presumably spring was Felix Mendelssohn's favorite season. In eight of the total of thirty a cappella choral songs, spring is mentioned in the title; and it is possible that the forest was the place he most liked to be, because not only are very many of his songs about forest: he also visualized his music being performed in woodland. In a letter to his mother he described such an experience; and in his own illustration (reproduced in the detailed CD booklet) he even painted the scene. This first complete collection is rounded off by two first recordings. Following their recordings of Bach (TACET 108), Schetz (TACET 99) and Pepping (TACET 123), Matthias Jung and the Saxon Vocal Ensemble once again demonstrate how well they can perform German lyrics.

Mendelssohn wrote his Second Symphony or Lobgesang ('Hymn of Praise') in 1840, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Gutenberg's invention of movable type. This symphony-cantata, as the composer termed it, is duly permeated with a rich and often jubilant spirit, and patterned after Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in it's solo vocal and large choral forces. The rich orchestral palette is supplemented by thrilling and expressive vocal writing, which includes solos and duets of great beauty, and culminates in a blazing fugal ending.

Albums rarely contain both chamber works and choral music, but in the case of composer Felix Mendelssohn, the juxtaposition is justified. For which is the more Bach-inspired? The a cappella works which breathe Bach into every note, or the Piano Trio no. 2 with the choral Herr Gott dich loben wir, which also motors Bach’s cantata 130? On this new release, an exceptional trio featuring violinist Pekka Kuusisto, cellist Pieter Wispelwey, and pianist Alasdair Beatson, as well as the acclaimed Flemish Radio Choir and conductor Herve Niquet, bring homage to the composer who gave second life to Bach, and grace and poetry to the romantics. The Vlaams Radio Koor (Flemish Radio Choir) was founded in 1937 by the Belgian public broadcaster of the day. Today it has become a choir of exceptionally high quality that counts both domestically and internationally among the top ensembles. The 24 professional singers rehearse under the baton of chief conductor Hervé Niquet in Studio 1 of the well-known Flagey building in Brussels, and perform throughout Flanders and Europe.

An exciting new collaboration between Somm Recordings and the Tippett Quartet begins with striking performances of early and late string quartets by Mendelssohn. Fiercely imbued with the spirit of Beethoven, Mendelssohn's Opp. 12, 13 and 80 quartets brim and boil with an innovation, dynamism, emotional sincerity and technical flair some would deny the composer. These deeply felt performances from the Tippett Quartet present Mendelssohn in a new light and challenge Hans von B�low's notorious observation that he "began as a genius and ended as a talent." All three quartets - Op. 13, composed when Mendelssohn was just 18-years-old, and Op. 80, his last major work, completed two months before his death at 38 - speak movingly of loss. Op. 12 laments the passing of Beethoven, Op. 13 regrets unrequited love, Op. 80 an inconsolable response to the death of Mendelssohn's sister, Fanny. The earlier works, the Tippett Quartet says, "command an astounding expressive power and technical prowess with all the exuberance and intensity of a young man searching for the sublime and the profound." Mendelssohn's last significant musical utterance, the valedictory Op. 80, "turns his sense of loss, grief and, most of all, anger into a truly sublime work of art". "When we were recording them, " says the Tippett Quartet, "it felt like we were playing brand new pieces by a living composer, not works that carry, and have become burdened by, the weight of tradition". These poignant, powerful, emotionally raw, musically rich performances make persuasive claim for music of passion, poetry and profundity and offer fresh insights into Mendelssohn as he was meant to be played.

Exciting perceptual shifts await the listener, presented here on the new Genuin CD by the Duo Lontano: Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture, suspended in a reverie, and the youthful-bubbly String Octet, which the composer himself arranged for black and white keys and four hands. The colorful images become transformed into dramatic black-and-white pictures and the structures emerge differently and more contoured than in the original version - particularly in the way the sensitive and excellently matched pianists Babette Hierholzer and J�rgen Appell - the Duo Lontano - embrace the tender romanticism of the works. Highly fascinating insights into the composer's workshop!

Classical Music

The German music journal Fono Forum said of Rilling's Elias, "Helmuth Rilling realizes the stylistic span of the choirs from an ascetic a cappella to an impressionistic coloration, an almost Brahmsian Sentiment, and even up to a dramatic intensity. The orchestra is their equal. High-caliber soloists are thoroughly convincing."

Classical Music

In addition to his prodigious youthful genius as a composer, Mendelssohn was an exceptionally able pianist. Demonstrating an astonishing level of maturity beyond the composer's teenage years, this group of rare works is notable for a sequence of piano fugues with an impressive command of counterpoint and chorale harmonization, two sonatas which reveal the dual influences of the Baroque and more contemporary models such as Weber and Hummel, as well as a dashing 'Prestissimo in F minor' and a brilliant 'Vivace in C minor.' These early piano works are exceptionally rarely recorded. This release will come at the 200th anniversary of the pieces.