MENDELSSOHN Violin Concerto in e. SCHUMANN Violin Concerto. BEETHOVEN Romances Nos. 1 and 2 • Rachel Barton Pine (vn); Christoph-Mathias Mueller, cond; Göttinger SO • CEDILLE 90000144 (71:20)
Rachel Barton Pine’s new release on Cedille Records contains a pairing of the violin concertos by Felix Mendelssohn and Robert Schumann, plus the two short Romances by Ludwig van Beethoven. When Mendelssohn became Kapellmeister of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra in 1835, he made his friend Ferdinand David the concertmaster. In a letter dated July 30, 1838, Mendelssohn wrote to him: “I should like to write a violin concerto for you next winter. One in E minor runs through my head, the beginning of which gives me no peace.” He worked on it for six years, during which he kept up a regular correspondence about it with the violinist. David premiered it with his orchestra in1845, the last year of the composer’s life.
Barton Pine plays this most familiar piece with quite a distinctive interpretation. Her first movement is light, fast, and dripping with passion. She lets you know she is enjoying the pace as she rises to the challenge. Her blazing bow work and perfectly intoned notes are always impeccably smooth as the fingers of her left hand fly through the movement with seeming ease. The imaginative phrasing of her expressive Andante soars over the orchestra with limpid, poignant beauty. She plays the beginning of the third movement with ardor and the wonderful Finale marked Allegro molto vivace with amazing artistry and technique. As we all know, the most renowned violinists of the 20th and 21st centuries have recorded it so the competition is fierce. Joshua Bell recorded the Concerto for Sony in 2002 with Roger Norrington and the Camerata Salzburg. His performance is tasteful and inviting, but I think it lacks some of Barton Pine’s intensity and excitement. Recording in 1995 on Deutsche Grammophon, Anne Sophie Mutter plays beautifully, but her interpretation lacks some of the individual flair and drama heard on the Cedille disc. A more recent release is Alina Ibragimova’s Hyperion recording, a historically informed performance of the Concerto with Vladimir Jurowski and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Her playing is exciting but she does not have Barton Pine’s depth of understanding. Reaching back into history, there are some great performances by artists such as Henryk Szeryng, but their sound is nowhere near the present state of the art.
Like the Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann’s Concerto has many renditions despite its difficult birth. Although Clara Schumann, Joseph Joachim, and Johannes Brahms consigned it to a shelf, by now it has earned a place in the hearts of the music-loving public. Barton Pine plays it with a deep emotional commitment that is palpable throughout her performance. Henryk Szeryng plays it together with the Mendelssohn Concerto on a Mercury Living Presence CD released in 1994. On a Teldec disc, also released in 1994, Gidon Kremer’s rendition of the Violin Concerto is paired with Martha Argerich’s interpretation of Schumann’s Piano Concerto. Known for his individualism, Kremer plays the first and third movements much slower and with greater deliberation than Barton Pine, but his second movement is faster. Barton Pine’s first two movements are slower than Szeryng’s, but she plays the finale faster than either Szeryng or Kremer. All of that pales in comparison to these fine artists’ interpretation of this great but much maligned work. With her judicious use of rubato and a tasteful interpretation, Barton Pine has put her indelible stamp on the Schumann. She has come to love it intensely and she is teaching her fans to love it as well.
The two Beethoven Romances are a charming addition to this excellent disc. Since one is placed between the concertos and the other is at the very end, they add moments of contemplation that allow the listener to fully absorb the untrammelled joy of the Mendelssohn and the deeply compelling lyricism of the Schumann. Christoph-Mathias Mueller and the Göttinger Symphonie of Lower Saxony give stellar performances of the orchestral parts of each work. Except for one slightly muddy note at the very end of the Mendelssohn, the sound on this Cedille recording is brimming with life and it allows you to feel as if seated in the 10th row center of a fine concert hall. I heartily recommend this delightful recording.
Founded in 2005, the Escher String Quartet is still a young ensemble as string quartets go. It has nevertheless become established as one of the most exciting quartets around, both in its home country, the U.S.A., and elsewhere, recently being shortlisted for a BBC Music Magazine Award. With their début disc on BIS, the Eschers launch a three-disc cycle of Mendelssohn’s string quartets, including the unnumbered String Quartet in E flat major and – on coming instalments – the four pieces for string quartet Op.81.
Reviews:
This is full-blooded quartet playing in the grand, classic manner; extrovert and eloquent. Rich tone, good balance and a particularly noteworthy expressiveness from the first violin, Adam Barnett-Hart, who offers that rare ability not only to sing but also to speak through the instrument.
– BBC Music Magazine
The Escher are fervent advocates of the E flat Quartet, imbuing the slow movement with a luxuriant warmth. There's no doubting the players' musicianship or technical ability, which are caught with admirable immediacy.
–Gramophone
The Eschers sound warm, relaxed and responsive to all of Mendelssohn’s expressive nuances. They lavish full, red-blooded tone on the slow movement of the genial Quartet No 1, and in the restless Quartet No 4 they keep the momentum striving forward, with first violinist Adam Barnett-Hart spinning long, seamless phrases.
Mendelssohn: Lieder ohne Worte (Songs Without Words) (Comple
Piano Classics
CD
$14.99$29.99Save 50%Apr 29, 2014
" This 2CD set features a new recording of the complete Lieder ohne Worte (Songs without Words) by Felix Mendelssohn. These ever popular works, often of deceptively “simple” language and writing, in fact contain a wealth of moods.
Hungarian master pianist Balázs Szokolay (b. 1961) has been a piano professor at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest since 1987. repertoire is wide, his discography extensive and he concertizes worldwide as both soloist and chamber musician."
Zino Francescatti recorded Mendelssohn’s and Tchaikovsky’s concertos twice, possibly to take advantage the second time of stereophonic sound: the first recording of each with Mitropoulos and the New York Philharmonic in 1954 (both reissued in Sony’s Masterworks Heritage series, 62339—which regrettably seems no longer to be available). He made his second recording of Mendelssohn’s Concerto in 1961 in Severance Hall and his second of Tchaikovsky in 1965 at the Manhattan Center; they appeared together on LP as Columbia ML 6158 and its stereo twin, MS 6758.
Natty Francescatti seemed ideally suited to Mendelssohn’s Concerto. His tone possessed the bright and edgy individuality to highlight the flashing pyrotechnics in a personal way; and without pressing the tempos unduly, he could strike sparks in the cadenza’s off-the-string passagework and in the elfin finale. The uniqueness of his approach seems clearest, however, in the slow movement, to which he brings a fresh, chaste ardor to the familiar soaring lines, and in the lyrical episode in the finale, which he plays as though he had written it. And Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra (billed as “members of the Cleveland Orchestra in the original LP release), provided genial support.
Henry Roth didn’t consider Francescatti’s way with Tchaikovsky sufficiently urgent; in fact, the very qualities that enhanced Francescatti’s reading of Mendelssohn’s Concerto might seem diametrically opposed to those Tchaikovsky’s Concerto required. Francescatti certainly didn’t play with the propulsive intensity of Auer’s students, Jascha Heifetz and Nathan Milstein, nor with the glowing warmth of David Oistrakh, any of whom might almost have claimed the Concerto as his own. Yet it’s hard to think of just what it might be that Francescatti’s performance lacks. While remaining his dapper self, he soars in the Concerto’s frequent lyrical passages, plays with commanding brilliance in the first movement’s cadenza (into which he inserts Auer’s famous—or infamous—but nevertheless electrifying thirds), and generates overwhelming virtuoso excitement in the movement’s coda. The slow movement, taken deliberately, smolders with exotic Slavic hues, a showcase for Francescatti’s distinctive tone production, even though muted. And he realizes the excitement of the finale, both in its pounding first theme and in the moody episodes, anticipated piquantly in the introduction. The original engineers reproduced clearly the clearer orchestral textures and gave body to Schippers’s and the orchestra’s explosive tuttis.
Those who admire Francescatti should find here a compendium of his art spanning colossally the range of expressive possibilities and mastered with Sony’s DSD and SBM techniques. Urgently recommended, of course, to Francescatti enthusiasts, but with equal enthusiasm to general listeners as well.
This new album by the award-winning Latvian Radio Choir conducted by Sigvards Klava - recently hailed by the New York Times as 'astonishing', 'superlative' by the BBC Music Magazine, and 'perhaps the finest chorus singing today' by NPR - is focused on the sacred choral works by one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era, Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847). This recording of the Psalms also includes the world premiere recording of Ehre sei dem Vater published by Carus Verlag in 1997.
Mendelssohn: Music for Men's Chorus / Bernius, SWR Vocal Ensemble
Carus
CD
$38.99Jun 16, 2023
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy composed a total of 38 songs for male voices a cappella between 1820 and 1847. He wrote many of them for his own use among family or friends. He also liked to use these secular choruses as gifts or personal thanksgiving. Now the male voices of the SWR Vokalensemble under the direction of Frieder Bernius have presented a recording of these songs. The result is an impressive testimony to these compositions, which are among the least explored parts of Mendelssohn's oeuvre.
Mendelssohn: Complete String Symphonies / Lev Markiz, Et Al
BIS
SACD
$21.99Jan 01, 2008
These exuberant works were all composed between 1821 and 1824, by a composer who had not yet turned 15. They were performed in the Mendelssohn family residence in Berlin, at Sunday concerts during which musicians from the court orchestra performed and the young Felix and his sister Fanny would appear as soloists when called upon. The opportunity to trace the development of an extremely talented prodigy into a confident composer makes this collection highly interesting. But first and foremost it is a source of tremendous pleasure, with delightful music incorporating influences from Mozart and Haydn, as well as from the Baroque up to and including C.P.E. Bach in expert performances by the Amsterdam Sinfonietta (formerly known as Nieuw Sinfonietta Amsterdam) and Lev Markiz. As described at the time of the original release by the reviewer in Gramophone it consists of 'life-enhancing music from the adolescent fast on his way to such miracles as the Octet and Overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream. And performances to match from a group with brilliance of execution and beautiful even tone as a starting-point for the classical athletic grace, joie de vivre, and often striking ideas.'
Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto No. 2/Bruch: Violin Concerto No. 1 (2015) Itzhak Perlman, Bernard Haitink, Concertgebouw Orchestra. More than a decade after his first recording of the Mendelssohn and Bruch concertos, Perlman returned to them with Bernard Haitink and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, bringing new insights and an even more acute feeling for their Romantic contrasts and drama.
The history of fantasy as a form of composition spans centuries and the term was already used in the Renaissance. Many great composers tried their hand at this genre, each giving it a personal touch. With romantic fantasies by Frédéric Chopin, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Robert Schumann, Amit Yahav presents a number of highlights of this musical form on his new GENUIN recording. The Israeli pianist completed his doctorate on Chopin in London and for his album recording chose, among other works, the composer's posthumous Fantaisie Impromptu, op. 66, which was taken from a manuscript. A wonderful discovery!
Mendelssohn - Kreek: Psalms / Reuss, Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir
Ondine
CD
$18.99Apr 24, 2012
For their second release on Ondine, the acclaimed Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir under chief conductor Daniel Reuss perform Psalm settings by Felix Mendelssohn and Estonian composer Cyrillus Kreek. The first release of the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir was given an ‘Editor’s Choice’ accolade by Gramophone. Cyrillus Kreek, a graduate of the St. Petersburg Conservatory and a collector of folk songs, laid the foundation for Estonian professional music. The unique coupling highlights the familiarity between Mendelssohn and Kreek in terms of vocal and harmonic setting.
Mendelssohn, Mozart, Dvorak: Thomas Jensen Legacy, Vol. 5 / Jensen, Sachsenskjold, Fischer, Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra
Danacord
CD
$14.99$18.99Save 20%Jan 07, 2022
All-new remasterings of live and previously unissued recordings: a Mendelssohn concert from 1962 demonstrates Thomas Jensen’s undimmed power to galvanize an orchestra towards the end of his life. From his very last concert, given a fortnight before his death in 1963, works by Handel and Mozart find him (and pianist Annie Fischer) on fluent, sparkling form. Novelettes by ‘the Danish Mendelssohn’ Niels W. Gade make a neat coupling, and the set closes with the Dvorák overture which launched the DRSO on the international scene. Another landmark album in the wider appreciation of a conductor whose legacy has been too narrowly restricted to the music of his homeland.
The Simply Quartet is among the most sought-after ensembles of the younger generation. It regularly graces the stages of leading concert venues and receives widespread acclaim. On their new GENUIN album, the young musicians devote themselves to two mature works: the final quartets of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Antonin Dvorak. With interpretations marked by great fidelity to the works, they show how they combine youthful energy with sweeping musical lines, resulting in a genuinely electrifying chamber music recording!
Arnold Mendelssohn: Motetten zur Weihnacht - Deutsche Messe
SWR
CD
$10.49$20.99Save 50%Sep 25, 2012
Today, the name of Arnold Mendelssohn scarcely ranks as a footnote in most musical textbooks; however, he played a seminal role in the revival of German church music. His love of polyphony, combined with his characteristic warm, late Romantic harmonic language imbues Mendelssohn's scores with a sense of otherworldly timelessness.
