Classical Music

The West Texas-based Harrington String Quartet, established in 1981, currently in-residence as string faculty at West Texas A&M University, and on the heels of their last release Northern Lights, their collaborative recording with the Phoenix Chorale which was lauded by many as being one of the best classical albums of 2012 delve into the intricacies of Mendelssohn's string quintets featuring guest violist James Dunham and close out this strong release with the Capriccio for String Quartet, Op. 81.

Felix Mendelssohn (1809-47), a Musician Much-Beloved By His Many Contemporaries in the German-Speaking World and Beyond, and a Composer of Consistently Pleasing Works of Often Overlooked Depth, Is Given the Sole Spotlight on These 1978 and 2013 Recordings By Pianist James Johnson and, in the Two Piano Concerti, Afro-American Conductor Paul Freeman and the Royal Philharmonic. The Variations Serieuses, Op. 54 Is the Later Recording, Is a Solo Work of Considerable Virtuosic Content.

Classical Music

Felix Mendelssohn, whose centenary we celebrate this year, was the ultimate cosmopolitan composer, but formed a special relationship with Britain, which he visited ten times. A number of his works were written in response to English commissions, including Elijah, and the Six Sonatas for Organ which have become established repertoire for organists and are some of Mendelssohn's last compositions. Mendelssohn was the first composer of international renown after J.S. Bach to return to the organ, and performed publicly on English organs during all his visits, audiences coming in droves to hear him. The sound of the English organ of his day had some distinctive qualities, which have been captured on this recording by William Whitehead, who uses the 1818 Lincoln Organ now situated in the Ballroom at Buckingham Palace. It is not known whether Mendelssohn played this particular instrument but we know that he was a warmly welcomed guest of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert at the Palace on numerous occasions. Recently restored, the organ gives an English perspective on this ebullient music which crosses international boundaries of style. It is the first time an authentic instrument of this period has been used to record Mendelssohn's Six Organ Sonatas. William Whitehead will perform a number of organ recitals in Norway during July, appearing at the Bergen Festival on 5 July. He will also take part in the Westminster Abbey Summer Organ Festival on 11 August.

Even listening "blind," I suspect I'd have pegged these as Russian performances. The opening 'cello phrase of the D minor Trio is distinctly melancholy; the violin, taking up the same theme, infuses the vaulting leaps with yearning; and the arrival of the "tutti" at 1:11 is rather grand -- or, at any rate, as grand as three instruments can make it.

So it goes. The Borodin Trio's heightened emotional scale doesn't turn Mendelssohn into Tchaikovsky, as one might fear, but the more turbulent passages of the D minor's first-movement development do suggest a sort of Slavic Beethoven. The pianist launches the Andante con moto tranquillo with a simplicity that recalls the Songs without Words, but the string players take over on the repeats with a saturated, vibrant tone, and the more unsettled second theme rises to unusually impassioned climaxes. The Scherzo comes off as both playful and trenchant, echoing its Midsummer Night's Dream counterpart in spirit. The Finale is cogent and persuasive, with the climaxes again bringing an added touch of grandeur and breadth. It's an impressive and satisfying performance, though likely to disconcert those who think of Mendelssohn's output as uniformly graceful and featherweight.

Stylistically, the C minor Trio's outer movements follow more or less conventional patterns -- or perhaps I'd simply gotten used to the Borodin's expanded sense of scale -- but the playing still has its uniquely reflective moments. The Andante espressivo again juxtaposes the piano's gentle rocking rhythm with more heartfelt, sustained string playing; the players really bring out the expressive weight in the development's string of secondary modulations. This Scherzo, taut and volatile, recalls its counterpart from the Octet. The Finale's main theme, with its triple rhythm, has a nice swing; the players lean on their agogic stretches to maintain a firm propulsion.

The sound quality is big, warm and vivid to match the performances, avoiding the excessive ambient resonance that would characterize Chandos's orchestral recordings. This budget-price reissue merits a warm welcome.

-- Stephen Francis Vasta, MusicWeb International

For this new recording of orchestral works by Mendelssohn, the CBSO and its principal guest conductor, Edward Gardner, join the violinist Jennifer Pike, who made a remarkable debut at Carnegie Hall this year. She here performs the Violin Concerto in E minor, the piece that launched her career thirteen years ago when she became the youngest-ever winner of the BBC Young Musician of the Year Award. This recording contains another of Mendelssohn's later works: the Incidental Music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1843), in which he managed to recapture and amplify the unique magic of his early years.

Review:

Pike allies the luminous beauty of her tone to her innate musicality and mercurial technique to produce an exceptionally lyrical interpretation of the evergreen Violin Concerto in E minor.

– Guardian (UK)

The third in Chandos's 'Mendelssohn in Birmingham' series with the City of Birmingham Symphony led by Edward Gardner features "Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage" and his Symphony No. 2. The overture's densely textured, slow opening evocation of oceanic calm and the following, quickening full-orchestral crescendo strikingly depict Goethe's verses. The fusion of neo-baroque procedures with romantic sentiment provides the backdrop to a symphony made up of three orchestral movements and a choral finale, in which contrapuntal arias contrast with exuberant, dramatic choral sections.

Edward Gardner and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra present Volume 2 in their series Mendelssohn in Birmingham; this time they perform Symphonies Nos 1 and 3 and the Overture to Ruy Blas. The impressive first volume was roundly praised, International Record Review commending the ‘powerfully engaging and alert performances’, while The Sunday Times made it their ‘Album of the Week’.

Among the fruits of his prodigiously gifted youth were thirteen string symphonies, which Mendelssohn composed privately as ‘practice’ pieces. At age fifteen he returned to the last of these, expanded the orchestration, and published it as the first of his mature numbered symphonies. As heard here, this energetic work, bursting with youthful high spirits, shows the influence of Mozart, Beethoven, and Weber, but that influence is always absorbed in a personal way.

Although numbered as the third of five, the ‘Scottish’ Symphony was actually the last which Mendelssohn composed. Inspiration for it had come while Mendelssohn was visiting Edinburgh in 1829. He was immediately moved to compose the brooding melody that begins and ends the work, but not until 1842 did he actually finish this masterpiece.

No such time span was needed to complete the Overture to Victor Hugo’s tragedy Ruy Blas, which was commissioned only three days before the production’s opening night. Mendelssohn loathed Hugo’s drama and though the opening is suitably sombre, the rest of the overture disregards the play’s form and character, concluding in celebration where Hugo’s story culminates in murder and suicide.

Review:

Gardner conducts these pieces with a highly satisfying blend of freedom and discipline. In some of Mendelssohn's more lyrical moments you need a metronome to judge his rhythmic flexibility, so naturally does he apply it, and throughout the disc the strings articulate with splendid vigor.

– BBC Music Magazine

'Never was there a more complete triumph', wrote The Times after the premiere of Elijah by Mendelssohn. The performance, conducted by the composer at the 1846 Birmingham Music Festival, marked the beginning of the life of Elijah as one of the best-loved choral works in the repertoire, a status it still holds.

A grand oratorio in two parts, Elijah is very much composed in the spirit of Mendelssohn's baroque predecessors, combining the dramatic sweep of Handel with episodes of sublime meditation such as are found in Bach. It tells the story of the stern Old Testament prophet Elijah who preached against the idol worship of the Israelite people. Mendelssohn adapted the Biblical texts to produce intensely dramatic scenes depicting, for example, the resurrection of a dead youth, a contest of the gods, and Elijah's ascension into heaven on a fiery chariot.

This recording, made in April 1989, presents an all-star cast with Willard White in the title role and Rosalind Plowright, Linda Finnie, Arthur Davies, and Jeremy Budd singing the various supporting parts. Conducting the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus is the late Richard Hickox, a musician who built an immense reputation for his masterful performances of choral music during his career. This release is a part of the ongoing Richard Hickox Legacy series.

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Frieder Bernius - these names are often mentioned in one and the same breath. Bernius's complete recording of Mendlssohn's sacred choral music with the Kammerchor Stuttgart, which has won many prizes, is a major feat of both interpretation and editing, and has extensively contributed to Mendelssohn's complete oeuvre becoming part of the concert repertoire, a fact which today is taken for granted. On the occasion of his 70th birthday in June, 2017, Frieder Bernius has now produced a recording of the high quality associated with him of Mendelssohn's most well-known secular choral songs under the title of ''Liedern im Freien zu singen''.

Apart from his ingenious music for Shakespeare’s comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Felix Mendelssohn’s incidental music for plays remain overshadowed by his symphonies and vocal works. With his hallmark recordings of the complete oratorios and choral works, the German conductor and Kammerchor Stuttgart founder and director Frieder Bernius long ago staked a claim for consideration as one of the world’s foremost Mendelssohn experts. Bernius’ highly praised recent recordings of three of the composer’s incidental music compositions are now published for the first time in boxed form.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music