Felix Mendelssohn

Thomas Zehetmair is one of the most significant violinists of his generation. He enjoys a successful international career thrilling audiences and critics with his abilities as a soloist, chamber musician and conductor.

As violinist Thomas Zehetmair is a regular guest of the most renowned European and American orchestras as well as leading conductors of the day. He dedicates a large part of his artistic activities to contemporary music and has a second career as a conductor as well as working with leading chamber musicians such as Pierre-Laurent Aimard.

Thomas Zehetmair has recorded nearly the entire violin repertoire on CD, more recently on a number of different labels but in the early part of his career in the 1990’s he made many recordings for Teldec as celebrated in this box set.

On these critically acclaimed recordings the Vienna Philharmonic and von Dohnányi play Mendelssohn's effortlessly melodic orchestral works, as well as the symphonies. Also includes a cantata and overtures.

"'Performances which are fresh and direct" The Penguin Guide To CDs

New booklet essay by Colin Anderson.

The German conductor Rudolf Kempe (1910–1976) began his musical career playing the oboe in various symphony orchestras. He eventually graduated to being a conductor after working for several years as an operatic repetiteur. His modest manner on the podium belied his great authority in controlling an orchestra, and his warm but meticulously detailed interpretations of the main classical repertoire established him as one of the leading conductors of his time.

The programme begins with recordings of four Beethoven Symphonies that Kempe made with the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra in 1971–72 as part of a complete cycle that has been critically acclaimed, although it has not previously been widely available.

These are followed by Symphonies 3 and 4 by Brahms with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra respectively, two orchestras with which Kemper was closely associated throughout his career.

The next CD shows Kempe’s skill with descriptive ‘programme’ music in Mendelssohn’s delightful incidental music to Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ and Rimsky-Korsakov’s colourful orchestral suite Scheherazade depicting a number of tales from the 1001 Arabian Nights.

Then comes music by three Bohemian composers: the opening of the famous ‘Largo’ from Dvorák’s ‘New World’ Symphony; the Polka from Schwanda the Bagpiper by Weinberger; and a suite from Smetana’s lively opera The Bartered Bride.

CDs 6 and 7 present several of the main orchestral works by Richard Strauss, including Don Juan., Ein Heldenleben, Till Eulenspiegel, Tod und Verklärung and Don Quixote, all except the last recorded with the Staatskapelle Dresden, an orchestra closely associated with the works of Richard Strauss.

CD 8 moves to the opera house and includes vocal extracts from Richard Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos and Wagner’s Lohengrin and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. The next CD covers orchestral pieces from opera, including a suite arranged by Kempe himself from Hansel und Gretel by Humperdinck

On CD 10 we find Kempe in lighter mood with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in a programme of orchestral bon-bons that was called Vienna Philharmonic ‘On Holiday’ when it was originally released on LP. Tthe final CD covers some of the best loved music by the Strauss family. The very last track in the album is the waltz Gold und Silber by Franz Lehár, which Kempe considered the finest studio recording he ever made.

Eugene Asti’s pioneering Mendelsson Songs and Duets series, containing a large amount of first recordings and rarities, concludes with this fifth volume, a generous two CDs for the price of one. The contents range from Mendelssohn’s first extant composition of any kind – a birthday song presented to his father by the precocious ten-year-old composer – to settings of the German romantic poets Schiller, Goethe and Eichendorff,which place Mendelssohn firmly in the canon of the great Lieder composers.

These works are performed by a talented group of young singers who will be familiar from other discs in the series, including the winner of the 2008 Kathleen Ferrier prize, Katherine Broderick.

The romantic works on this recording profit from Singer Pur’s supreme mastery and its absolute precision in intonation, harmony and phrasing. Every voice retains its independence even as it contributes to the ensemble sound. Their concerts and recordings have been very successful.

Live recordings

Each year the Ruhr Piano Festival releases a boxed set of 3CDs featuring live recordings of highlights and anniversary celebrations in selected outstanding performances. Included are Mendelssohn’s first Piano Concerto and Concerto for Two Pianos, harpsichord works by Handel and contemporary works.