Mendelssohn: Violin Concertos, Violin Sonata In F Minor / Tianwa Yang
Naxos AudioVisual
CD
$16.99Mar 26, 2013
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.
Fanny Hensel-Mendelssohn: Choral Works & Cantatas Duets, Son
Haenssler Classic
CD
$32.99Mar 13, 2026
Fanny Mendelssohn composed a diverse oeuvre that includes organ, piano and vocal works. Her organ pieces reflect the Protestant tradition and demonstrate her contrapuntal mastery. The piano works are lyrical, technically demanding and often designed as character pieces. Her vocal works are particularly numerous, including over 250 songs, which are characterized by fine word-sound combinations and romantic expressiveness. This 6 CD box allows an insight into the composer's creativity.
MENDELSSOHN String Symphonies • Michael Hofstetter, cond; Stuttgart CO • ORFEO C 763093 D (3 CDs: 221:27)
The well-publicized childhood musical genius of Mozart and Schubert was surpassed by that of Mendelssohn, as witnessed by the 13 string symphonies he completed by age 15. The third of these string symphonies already shows mastery, by this mere child, of the art of contrapuntal writing. This and other signs of precocious musical genius increased as the composer matured through each of the succeeding 10 string symphonies. The first six are imitative of Schubert and Beethoven, but in the Seventh String Symphony in D Minor, Mendelssohn begins to express his individuality. From the Ninth on, Mendelssohn moves forward at a galloping pace, with glorious fugal movements and fugal passages proliferating. The 11th String Symphony, in F Major/F Minor, is my favorite. Mendelssohn augments the second movement, marked Commodo (Schweizerlied), with percussion at its conclusion. The 13th String Symphony is incomplete, consisting of only a single movement that shows further mastery of contrapuntal writing.
Michael Hofstetter, the principal conductor of the renowned Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra and follower of a line of succession that started with the orchestra’s founder, Karl Münchinger, gives us a commendable set of these early Mendelssohn masterpieces. But the playing is relatively subdued and the conducting is characterized by too weak a beat for my taste. Other listeners may prefer this approach, which uses a small chamber orchestra, to my favored version by Kurt Masur and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra with its fuller string complement. In terms of the era, Hofstetter’s approach is Baroque in character—small ensemble with restrained vibrato—whereas Masur’s is contemporary and closer to late 19th century. The latter seems to me to be more in line with what Mendelssohn meant to convey, closer to Beethoven than to Bach, but who really knows? In the first movement of the 11th Symphony, Hofstetter fails to take the very important exposition repeat, whereas Masur wisely observes it. This is the only textual difference that I found.
This disc is a very good Baroque-style alternative to Masur’s exceptionally fine modern performances. On that basis, it is recommended.
After their first recording, Nuits parisiennes, Manon Galy and Jorge Gonzalez Buajasan open the door to the inner worlds of Romanticism. Surrounding Mendelssohn's rare Sonata in F major MWV Q 26 (his only mature violin sonata), Brahms's Second, and Grieg's Third are a few poetic and intimate gems, such as Sibelius's Berceuse and Fibich's Poeme. Between "melancholy waltz and languorous vertigo," violin and piano become the exalted yet nostalgic voice of the composers' most personal confidences.
Following their much-praised Schubert recording (‘the most thrilling account of Schubert’s last symphony’, BBC Music Magazine), Maxim Emelyanychev and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra are reunited for their highly anticipated second album on Linn, this time performing Mendelssohn’s Symphonies Nos. 3 & 5. Inspired by the natural beauty of Scotland – and what better way to celebrate SCO’s 50th anniversary in 2023 than the ‘Scottish’ Symphony! – No. 3 has a fiery character well suited for the ‘dynamic, energetic and exciting to watch’ conductor Maxim (The Guardian). Despite its numbering, No. 5 (known as the ‘Reformation’) is an early work which evokes the struggles and triumph of Protestantism. Its final chorale based on Luther’s much celebrated ‘Ein feste Burg’ draws the album to a reaffirming end.
In 1827, when writing his Quartet in A minor, Op.13, the eighteen-year-old Mendelssohn was especially interested in Beethoven’s late quartets – at a time when these works were generally written off as ‘confused fantasies of a deaf musician’. In Mendelssohn's A minor quartet the debt to Beethoven is evident in the important role of polyphonic techniques, and particularly in the focus on cyclical connections between movements.
Ten years after the Op. 13 quartet, Mendelssohn composed the three quartets that make up his Op. 44. The D major quartet that closes the present disc was the last of these to be completed, but on publication, Mendelssohn placed it as the first in the set.
Mendelssohn also wrote four individual movements for string quartet. These were gathered together and published posthumously with the opus number 81, and on this second volume of their complete Mendelssohn cycle the Escher Quartet perform two of these pieces, both conceived in August 1847, only a couple of months before the composer’s death.
The first volume in the Eschers' series, released in April 2015, has been warmly received by the critics, with the internet site Pizzicato describing it as 'a noteworthy addition to the Mendelssohn discography'.
Reviewds:
The Eschers offer eloquent, full-blooded playing, with spacious tempos, earthy rhythms and rich, dug-in sound. Nothing is rushed or skittered over - and this is notably rewarding in music where an over-precious surface can risk missing the point…the four players offer a beautiful blend of individuality and accord, and BIS's famous SACD sound quality lets them gleam and glow.
– BBC Music Magazine
This young American group respond particularly vividly to the ebullience of the D major Quartet. Digging into the upward arpeggio with which it launches with infectious glee, while the first movement's coda is uproariously dispatched. Also impressive is their combination of finely honed interaction and a sense of playfulness.
Donald Francis Tovey famously described Mendelssohn as a “spoiled genius”. If so, then these two works composed between the ages of 14 and 15 reveal his genius before it got spoiled. They are wholly delightful. Mendelssohn’s classical impulses guarantee that he won’t fall into that deadly “allegro moderato” style of concerto-writing that took over the German school in the latter half of the 19th century. This music sizzles. At nearly 45 minutes you would think that the Second concerto would die an early and miserable death, but it doesn’t. The piano writing is consistently scintillating, but never overly dense, and often adventuresome. Just listen to the passage about eight minutes into the Second concerto’s first movement; it’s sensational stuff.
The performances are excellent. Duo Genova & Dimitrov plays with the youthful energy and impulsiveness that the music demands, yet they never bang or overload the very full textures. Ulf Schirmer and his Munich orchestra accompany with equal enthusiasm, and the recording captures the proceedings with amazing fidelity and purity. These works were not published or performed beyond Mendelssohn’s own lifetime until the 1960s. Hearing them rekindles our wonder at the youthful prodigy’s astonishing mastery. Whether his genius was later spoiled will be a source of controversy, but the pleasure to be had from this terrific release shouldn’t be. –- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com
Liszt, Mendelssohn, Vangelis et al.: Odyssee / Dörken
Berlin Classics
CD
$20.99May 06, 2022
Pianist Danae Dörken is embarking on a musical journey: on April 22, 2022, her new album "Odyssee" will be released by Berlin Classics. The repertoire is a varied selection and leads the listener through different eras. Among them are well-known classics by Franz Liszt or Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, but also works that the pianist associates with her Greek origins, for example by Manos Hatzidakis and Vangelis. "Odyssee" is about traveling, wandering and dreaming. "The Odyssey has fascinated me from a very young age. Even as a child, it was read to me as a bedtime story by my grandparents," Danae Dörken says. She knows the various stages of the journey inside out. "For me, it's a very current story. I think we're going through a modern odyssey. That's what I want to show with this album."
As I remarked last November when Vol. 1 of this cycle appeared, the multiplicity of notes in Mendelssohn’s piano music sometimes lays him open to the charge of ‘note-spinning’. So what higher praise for Frith than to say that thanks to his fluency, tact and fancy, not a single work in this second volume seems to outstay its welcome.
The unchallengeable masterpiece, of course, is the Variations serieuses, so enthusiastically taken up by Clara Schumann, and still a repertory work today. Frith characterizes each variation with telling contrasts of tempo and touch without sacrificing the continuity and unity of the whole. Equally importantly, never for a moment does he allow us to forget the serieuses of the title. I was no less impressed by his sensitively varied palette in the early E major Sonata (unmistakable homage to Beethoven’s Op. 101) so often helped by subtle pedalling. But surely the recitative of the Adagio at times needs just a little more intensity and underlying urgency.
Of the miniatures the six Kinderstucke (“Christmas Pieces” – written for the children of a friend) emerge with an unforced charm. As music they lack the romance of Schumann’s ventures into a child’s world, just as the Three Studies do of Chopin’s magical revelations in this sphere. However, Frith’s fingers never let him down. In the first B flat Study he even seems to acquire a third hand to sustain its middle melody. For sheer seductive grace, the independent Gondellied haunts my memory most of all, here with its melody so gracefully floated over a gently gliding bass. With pleasantly natural sound in its favour, too, this disc could surely sell at more than its modest price.'
This new release is the final disc in the Escher String Quartet’s traversal of Mendelssohn’s string quartets. The Strad called the first installment “A deeply rewarding release… and by any standards a distinguished one.” Later the same magazine made the sequel its recommendation in the November issue of 2015. Mendelssohn’s final quartets, Nos 5 and 6, are featured here alongside his Capriccio and Fugue. The Quartet No. 6 in F minor, Op. 80 was a special work in the composer’s eyes. The work was written in response to the unexpected death of his beloved sister, Fanny. The piece was published posthumously, as Mendelssohn suffered a number of strokes and died a month after premiering the piece.
Following the example of his distant 'great uncle' Felix, Arnold Mendelssohn (1853-1933) was a highly regarded composer, particularly in the field of Protestant sacred music, in which his famous relative had already distinguished himself. In contrast, his serious interest in the classical-romantic instrumental genres only began during the First World War, as if the composer wanted to reassure himself of tradition before all of the old structures collapsed. He was already approaching seventy when he wrote his violin concerto and, immediately afterwards, the second of his three symphonies-two witty masquerades whose broad spectrum between expressive meditation and a cheerful finale offers plenty of room for reminiscence, but not imitation. Mendelssohn juggles with symbols of the past but is never at their mercy. He masters them with ease.
Doomin Kim, who makes his recording debut with this album of piano music by Mendelssohn, is a 16-year-old from South Korea, currently on a programme for exceptionally talented students at Paris's Ecole Normale de Musique. 'Mendelssohn's music is like reading a book, a romantic story, a fairy tale or a poem. I hope that people will find peace in their hearts when they listen to it.' The best-known works on the programme are the mercurial 'Rondo capriccioso in E major' and the 'Fantasia in F sharp minor', known as the 'Scottish Sonata'.
