Sir John Eliot Gardiner conducts Mendelssohn & Schumann

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[Pires] has the enviable ability to make everything sound fresh but natural, and her tone is enchanting...The definition on [the Blu-ray] is superb and the camera work actually helps the viewer... — BBC Music Magazine, February 2015, 3 out of 5 stars/5 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 13th Oct 2014
Catalogue No: LSO0765
Label: LSO Live
Length: 79 minutes

Presto Recording of the Week

20th October 2014
Gramophone Magazine

January 2015

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Mendelssohn: Hebrides Overture, Op. 26

Work length10:01

$1.60

$1.95

$2.40

London Symphony Orchestra, Sir John Eliot Gardiner

Schumann: Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54

Work length31:27

Album only

London Symphony Orchestra, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Maria João Pires

I. Allegro affettuoso

Track length15:20

Album only

II. Intermezzo: Andantino grazioso

Track length5:03

$1.05

$1.30

$1.60

III. Allegro vivace

Track length11:04

$2.15

$2.60

$3.20

Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Op. 56 'Scottish'

Work length37:45

Album only

London Symphony Orchestra, Sir John Eliot Gardiner

I. Andante con moto - Allegro un poco agitato

Track length15:01

Album only

II. Vivace non troppo

Track length4:10

$1.05

$1.30

$1.60

III. Adagio

Track length8:56

$1.60

$1.95

$2.40

IV. Allegro vivacissimo - Allegro maestoso assai

Track length9:38

$1.60

$1.95

$2.40

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25th January 2015

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Recording of the Week, John Eliot Gardiner conducts Mendelssohn and Schumann

20th October 2014

James listens to John Eliot Gardiner and the LSO's new disc of Mendelssohn and Schumann, with pianist Maria João Pires.

LSO Live presents the first in a series exploring the complete symphonies of Felix Mendelssohn under the baton of Sir John Eliot Gardiner. Also featured on this release is the eminent Portuguese pianist, Maria João Pires, in the inaugural concerto recording on the label.

Inspired by his travels to the British Isles and full of the influence of the rolling Scottish landscape, both Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 3 ‘Scottish’ and his Hebrides Overture (‘Fingal’s Cave’) are amongst the composer’s most popular and celebrated works.

Sir John Eliot Gardiner writes of this coupling: "Even if they spoke with different accents these genial Romantics were united in their ambitious fervour for ‘abstract’ music to be acknowledged as having the same expressive force as poetry, drama or the literary novel. The three works on this album exemplify the endeavour and range of invention of two of them, friends and colleagues in Leipzig."

This recording will be released in both SACD and pure audio Blu-ray formats, allowing both the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir John Eliot’s performance to be seen and heard to full effect.

DSD recording, live at the Barbican, 21st January 2014

Video/ audio 2.0 Stereo and multi-channel (5.0)

Audio + bonus video material/digital (Blu-ray video of the entire concert plus Pires's encore).

Concert Reviews:

"This was the London Symphony Orchestra; but, with violins and violas standing and with a new suppleness and brilliance in their voice, they sounded Romantic and revolutionary. There was a brisk stepping-out, a bracing scent of the tangle o’ the isles, and tiny, drawn-back moments to glimpse the Romantic sublime." The Times****

"The opening of the Intermezzo was supremely graceful with Pires and the LSO’s cellos creating a chamber music intimacy in the ensuing dialogue. The cultivated way in which Pires and the LSO took up and finished phrases was masterful. The finale was a whirling dance with Pires really revving up the momentum while at the same time bringing out the fanciful elements in the score. The coda was played with gusto, bringing the piece to a sparkling conclusion." Seen and Heard

Reviews

February 2015

[Pires] has the enviable ability to make everything sound fresh but natural, and her tone is enchanting...The definition on [the Blu-ray] is superb and the camera work actually helps the viewer understand the music.

January 2015

Gardiner's Hebrides Overture must be one of the most thrilling ever recorded, adding volleys of sea-spray to well-navigated execution...Ebb and flow is of the essence in this proto-Wagnerian masterpiece and a subtle use of vibrato...Gardiner makes a beeline for individual instrumental details, keeping important woodwind lines to the fore.

January 2015

this ‘Scottish’ symphony is fresh, vital and even thrilling (a word that doesn’t always come up in discussions of Mendelssohn) as any I’ve ever heard…at its best it is so good that it can be recommended without hesitation.

30th October 2014

a reading formed by life experience…Pires is supported by conductor and orchestra magnificently...I’ve never heard so much of the orchestral colour and detail in any other Schumann recording … My anticipation that this might be a special recording has been met.

20th October 2014

As you would expect from the LSO brass section, the trumpets soar and blaze when appropriate, but it’s really the woodwind who excel [in The Hebrides]...Pires seems to focus on lyricism over drama, and that’s no bad thing [in the concerto]...It’s in [the Scottish] symphony that Gardiner’s credentials as a proponent of so-called historically-informed performance are most evident

Herald Scotland 9th November 2014

one of the finest performances of Schumann's Piano Concerto that I have ever heard...[Pires's] performance is as pristine and common-sensical as it is soulful and beguilingly expressive. The whole thing is absolutely wonderful, and an education.

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Sir John Eliot Gardiner conducts Mendelssohn & Schumann

SACD + Blu-ray Audio

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Favourites, Burns Night

Recording of the Week, John Eliot Gardiner conducts Mendelssohn and Schumann

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