The Romantic Piano Concerto 17 - Mendelssohn - Hyperion: CDA66969 - CD or download

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With Stephen Hough's Mendelssohn we enter a new dimension. The soft, stylish arpeggios that open the first work here, the Capriccio brillant, announce something special. But this is just a preparation... — Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 More…

Release Date: 1st Aug 1997
Catalogue No: CDA66969
Label: Hyperion
Series: The Romantic Piano Concerto
Length: 75 minutes

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Mendelssohn: Capriccio Brillant in B minor Op. 22

Work length10:46

$1.10

$1.50

Stephen Hough (piano)
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Lawrence Foster

Mendelssohn: Piano Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 25

Work length19:39

$3.30

$4.50

Stephen Hough (piano)
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Lawrence Foster

I. Molto allegro con fuoco

Track length7:15

$1.10

$1.50

II. Andante

Track length5:37

$1.10

$1.50

III. Presto – Molto allegro e vivace

Track length6:47

$1.10

$1.50

Mendelssohn: Rondo brillant in E flat major, Op. 29

Work length10:50

$1.10

$1.50

Stephen Hough (piano)
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Lawrence Foster

Mendelssohn: Piano Concerto No. 2 in D minor, Op. 40

Work length21:07

$3.30

$4.50

Stephen Hough (piano)
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Lawrence Foster

I. Allegro appassionato

Track length9:09

$1.10

$1.50

II. Adagio: Molto sostenuto

Track length5:01

$1.10

$1.50

III. Finale: Presto scherzando

Track length6:57

$1.10

$1.50

Mendelssohn: Serenade and Allegro giocoso, Op. 43, for piano and orchestra

Work length12:51

$1.10

$1.50

Stephen Hough (piano)
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Lawrence Foster

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This disc brings together, for the first time to our knowledge, all of Mendelssohn's published works for piano and orchestra. Mendelssohn was regarded as one of the foremost pianists of his day, Clara Schumann describing him as 'the dearest pianist of all'. While his works for the instrument are by no means as numerous as those of, say, Liszt or Chopin, they are models of the nineteenth-century genre and filled with melodious charm. The First Concerto is actually the earliest work on this disc, despite its opus number, and is the work that Liszt sight-read from a scribbled score to an astonished Mendelssohn when the two composers met in Paris. The Second Concerto saw its premiere appropriately enough given the orchestra performing on this discin Birmingham during the festival of 1837. The remaining three works find Mendelssohn in light-hearted mood, showing off his knack for melody and unaffected charm to the full.

Reviews

2010

With Stephen Hough's Mendelssohn we enter a new dimension. The soft, stylish arpeggios that open the first work here, the Capriccio brillant, announce something special. But this is just a preparation for the First Concerto.
Here again, 'stylish' is the word. One can sense the background – especially the operatic background against which these works were composed. The first solo doesn't simply storm away, fortissimo; one hears distinct emotional traits: the imperious, thundering octaves, the agitated semiquavers, the pleading appoggiaturas.
The revelation is the First Concerto's slow movement: not a trace of stale sentimentality here, rather elegance balanced by depth of feeling. Some of the praise must go to the CBSO and Foster; after all it's the CBSO violas and cellos that lead the singing in that slow movement. Foster and the orchestra are also effective in the opening of the Second Concerto – too often dismissed as the less inspired sequel to No 1. The first bars are hushed, sombre, a little below the main tempo, so that it's left to Hough to energise the argument and set the pace – all very effective.

The Romantic Piano Concerto 17 - Mendelssohn

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