Mendelssohn: The Fair Melusine Overture, Op. 32 (Das Märchen von der schönen Melusine)

The Decca Ansermet Legacy on Eloquence continues to garner the highest plaudits from publications all around the world and the latest batch presents the maestro’s recordings of four key Austro-German Romantics: Schubert, Weber, Mendelssohn and Schumann. This 2-CD set brings together all of Ansermet’s Mendelssohn and Schubert recordings for Decca.

Adopting clarity and muscularity over homogeneity, Ansermet’s Mendelssohn has dalliance and grace, not to mention wit. The Schubert Rosamunde music is notable particularly for its gorgeously cradled B-flat Entr’acte as well as the Ballet Music No. 1, previously unpublished, possibly due to the limiting length of the LP side – the original LP coupling the Mendelssohn Midsummer Night’s Dream excerpts with Schubert’s Rosamunde.

[Mendelssohn Symphony and Overtures] “…fresh, lovely and perceptive Mendelssohn playing, beautifully recorded” Gramophone

[Midsummer Night's Dream & Rosamunde] “…enjoyable and musicianly performances…” Gramophone

This is the latest release in our on-going series of recordings by the legendary German conductor Fritz Busch, earlier issues of which have drawn exceptional reviews from the international classical press. The disc is made up of mainly overtures and orchestral preludes from the 19th-century, with Hugo Alfven's ever-delightful Swedish Rhapsody No 1, one of the most tuneful and popular of all 20th-century short orchestral favourites. The repertoire therefore is surprisingly wide, and contains the conductor's own orchestral version of a suite of dances compiled from Schubert's music. With outstanding orchestral playing from orchestras in Winterthur, Los Angeles and Malmo, this CD offers another unique conspectus of the mastery of this great conductor.

This is one of the most important double-CD sets to be issued of the conducting genius of Arturo Toscanini, for it brings together virtually every single work by Mendelssohn he ever conducted in the USA. We have the last three symphonies- the Scotch, Italian and Reformation, plus the Violin Concerto with Jascha Heifetz (they never recorded it commercially) and three Overtures together with the Midsummer Night's Dream music. This is also the only recording of Toscanini conducting the Scotch - the only performance he ever gave in the USA - and the only recording of him conducting the Italian in which he makes the important first movement repeat. This is a unique release, commemorating also the Mendelssohn bicentenary, which will be widely welcomed by all collectors.