Mendelssohn in Birmingham, Vol. 2

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Gardner conducts these pieces with a highly satisfying blend of freedom and discipline. In some of Mendelssohn's more lyrical moments...you need a metronome to judge his rhythmic flexibility,... — BBC Music Magazine, December 2014, 5 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 1st Sep 2014
Catalogue No: CHSA5139
Label: Chandos
Series: Mendelssohn in Birmingham
Length: 74 minutes

BBC Music Magazine

December 2014

Orchestral Choice

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Mendelssohn: Ruy Blas, Op. 95, MWV P15

Work length7:29

$1.60

$1.95

$2.40

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Edward Gardner
Recorded: 25-26 October 2013
Recording Venue: Town Hall, Birmingham, United Kingdom

Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 11

Work length30:05

$5.30

$6.50

$8.00

Edward Gardner, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Recorded: 25-26 October 2013
Recording Venue: Town Hall, Birmingham, United Kingdom

I. Allegro di molto

Track length9:47

$1.60

$1.95

$2.40

II. Andante

Track length5:52

$1.05

$1.30

$1.60

III. Menuetto. Allegro molto

Track length6:22

$1.05

$1.30

$1.60

IV. Allegro con fuoco

Track length8:04

$1.60

$1.95

$2.40

Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 3 in A Minor, Op. 56, MWV N18, "Scottish"

Work length37:09

Album only

Edward Gardner, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Recorded: 25-26 October 2013
Recording Venue: Town Hall, Birmingham, United Kingdom

I. Andante con moto

Track length15:14

Album only

II. Vivace non troppo

Track length4:14

$1.05

$1.30

$1.60

III. Adagio

Track length8:51

$1.60

$1.95

$2.40

IV. Allegro vivacissimo

Track length8:50

$1.60

$1.95

$2.40

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Favourites, Felix Mendelssohn

David picks out some recordings of the German Romantic composer Felix Mendelssohn.

Edward Gardner and the CBSO present volume 2 in their series Mendelssohn in Birmingham, this time performing Symphonies Nos. 1 and 3 and the Overture Ruy Blas. The impressive first volume was roundly praised, IRR commending the ‘powerfully engaging and alert performances’ while the Sunday Times made it their ‘Album of the Week’.

Among the fruits of his prodigiously gifted youth were thirteen string symphonies, which Mendelssohn composed privately as ‘practice’ pieces. At age fifteen he returned to the last of these, expanded the orchestration and published it as the first of his mature numbered symphonies. As heard here, this energetic work, bursting with youthful high spirits, shows the influence of Mozart, Beethoven, and Weber, but that influence is always absorbed in a personal way.

Although numbered as the third of five, the ‘Scottish’ Symphony was actually the last which Mendelssohn composed. Inspiration for it had come while Mendelssohn was visiting Edinburgh in 1829. He was immediately moved to compose the brooding melody that begins and ends the work, but not until 1842 did he actually finish this masterpiece.

No such time span was needed to complete the Overture to Victor Hugo’s tragedy Ruy Blas, which was commissioned only three days before the production’s opening night.

Mendelssohn loathed Hugo’s drama and though the opening is suitably sombre, the rest of the overture disregards the play’s form and character, concluding in celebration where Hugo’s story culminates in murder and suicide.

Reviews

December 2014

Gardner conducts these pieces with a highly satisfying blend of freedom and discipline. In some of Mendelssohn's more lyrical moments...you need a metronome to judge his rhythmic flexibility, so naturally does he apply it...and throughout the disc the strings articulate with splendid vigour.

23rd August 2014

The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and its principal guest conductor, Edward Gardner, prove to be interpreters in the best tradition of the city. The symphonies Nos 1 and 3, the “Scottish”, get splendidly vital performances that go at quite a lick.

1st December 2014

it is essential that [No. 1's] music’s clarity and precision should be respected although in itself this is not enough. Urgency and an unsentimental response to the deeper and more lyrical aspects are also essential. All of these are present here with the result that even the more obviously derivative parts of the work are enjoyable...this is a very worthwhile addition to the catalogue, especially for the performance of the Symphony No. 1.

December 2014

Mendelssohn's First Symphony is in fact a re-orchestration by the composer of his final string symphony (one of thirteen composed in his youth as 'practice' exercises); its youthful spirit comes across clearly in this performance by the CBSO under Edward Gardner, while the liveliness of the Scottish Symphony is as joyful as one could wish.

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Favourites, Felix Mendelssohn

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