Felix Mendelssohn

Mendelssohn’s quartets have been receiving a good bit of attention on disc, and for good reason. They are the finest works in their medium between Beethoven and Dvorák, and one of them, the F minor quartet Op. 80, just might be Mendelssohn’s finest instrumental work in any form. More consistent in quality than his symphonies, elegant and shapely, these quartets deserve much wider exposure: no set makes a better case for them than this one. The sound quality is extremely natural, warm, and present, with remarkably little extraneous performance noise – in short, an essential set for lovers of great chamber music and great quartet playing.

La Dolce Volta has acquired part of the back catalogue of the prestigious Calliope label. These recordings will be gradually remastered in high definition and reissued in luxurious 'clamshell' 3CD sets. The silver-laminated illustrations are based upon late 19th-century photographs.

The only single CD with the complete Psalm Cantatas available.

Mendelssohn’s Psalm Cantatas are small scale works for vocal soloists, choir and orchestra, based on well known psalms, expressing the general emotional content of the psalm in dramatic and romantic musical language. The writing is firmly rooted in the German choral tradition, no wonder for a composer who revived Bach’s Matthäus Passion in his time.

Single issue drawn from the set of the complete choral works by Mendelssohn performed by the Chamber Choir of Europe conducted by Nicol Matt, a set which received uniform praise in the international press, among others a prestigious “Diapason d’Or”. Booklet contains liner notes and sung texts.

These cantatas, although relatively disregarded by the overly self‐critical composer and consequently only published in the 1970s and 80s, demonstrate Mendelssohn’s ability to strike a pleasing and impressive balance between the two extremes of this debate. The pieces are certainly not ‘utility music’ intended merely to serve a specific purpose within a church service; but neither do they cast off the liturgical framework in the manner of Beethoven’s Ninth or Mendelssohn’s ‘Reformation’ Symphony. Each one succeeds in having its own captivating effect capable of transporting the listener. The Psalm Cantatas are performed here by the Chamber Choir of Europe who, among numerous other feats, have already recorded the complete sacred choral works of both Mozart and Mendelssohn. They are led by Nicol Matt, a specialist in church music who has had several releases on Brilliant Classics and sold over eight million CDs worldwide.

Eugene Fodor was a pupil of Heifetz pupil who became a 1974 Tchaikovsky Competition prizewinner.

Erich Leinsdorf conducts the Tchaikovsky; Peter Maag conducts the Mendelssohn.

Recorded on the Paschen Organ of the Martin-Luther-Kirche Detmold

Gerhard Taschner became the concertmaster in Brno at the age of seventeen, and shortly thereafter Wilhelm Furtwängler appointed him to the same post in Berlin. Taschner was one of the twentieth century’s top talents, and the fascination with which this genial musician held his public spellbound is documented on this brand-new release featuring the violin concertos of Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky – with an encore in the form of Sarasate’s Gypsy Airs.

This collection of great chamber music brings together nine giants of music in works which reveal their most immediate and individual expressive worlds: proof if ever any was needed that less can be much, much more.

The father of Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn eagerly facilitated their artistic upbringing. Felix’s musical career took off from a young age and he was dubbed by Robert Schumann as ‘the Mozart of the 19th century’, while his similarly talented older sister was expected to keep music only as a hobby. This did not stop her from composing many pieces for playing in the home, some of which were later published under Felix’s name. She is considered the most important female composer of the era.

This collection brings together the Piano Trios of the siblings. Felix’s unusually scored Trio for piano, violin and viola in C minor was written when he was just ten years old; beginning with a Baroque‐style theme, its elfin motif, as featured later, is a clear precursor to the music of A Midsummer Night’s Dream Op.49, which prefigures this work on the recording, dates from Felix’s mature period and boasts a spectacular piano part,

which the composer himself played at the premiere (the first movement has been referred to as a ‘perfect synthesis of the mastery of Classical form with Romantic diction’); Op.66, meanwhile, is a passionate and exciting work – his penultimate chamber piece and one that revisits elfin themes in the Scherzo, ending in a resplendent Bach‐style chorale. The last work featured on the set, Fanny’s Piano Trio contains a virtuosic piano part that begins with dramatic tremolos but later evolves into a calm, harp‐like accompaniment, with a dance‐like finale revisiting the second theme to provide a jubilant end to the collection.

At the keyboard is Hrvoje Jugović, who plays four different historical pianos throughout the recording. His fellow musicians are violinist Maria Bader‐Kubizek, cellist Dorothea Schönwiese‐Guschlbauer and violist Silvia Schweinberger.