Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 5 in D major, Op. 107 'Reformation'

“…exceptional … there is a freshness and clarity in the Mendelssohn which ideally matches [Vengerov's] playing, at once felt and expressive but clean and direct, with articulation of diamond precision and fine tonal shading … one is left breathless at the end.” Gramophone Magazine (on the Violin Concerto)

“Katsaris is at his best. As buoyant as he is taut in rhythm here he seems to co-operate with, instead of competing against, Masur's splendid Gewandhaus orchestra.” Gramophone Magazine (on the Piano Concertos)

“…superbly 'right' tempos, modern orchestral forces ('classical' trumpets excepted) that permit the type of obviously 'right‘ internal balances that one associates with period performance, and yet have the familiarity of tone that enables us to relate what we hear to an accumulated experience of the classics on modern instruments… Space does not permit itemizing the individual wonders of the COE's playing, and the sound can simply be described as effortlessly natural.” Gramophone Magazine (on Symphonies 3 & 4)

“It is in the choral Second Symphony that the advantage of the wide-ranging digital sound comes out most strikingly, in clarifying the big tuttis with choir, at the same time providing extra weight of sound, notably in the way that pedal notes on the organ come over in a rich and realistic way. As to interpretation, Abbado in the first instrumental movement conveys a keener sense of joy with a wide expressive range. The yearning 6/8 movement is the more haunting too at Abbado's much slower speed, and though Abbado's slower speed for the Andante religioso brings obvious dangers of sweetness and sentimentality, he manages to avoid them completely with his warm but unmannered phrasing. Again, in the choral finale Abbado's speeds tend to be a degree more relaxed and the sense of joyful release is all the keener. His three soloists are very fine and their tonal beauty and natural feeling for words and phrasing are a delight. So too is the singing of the London Symphony Chorus, particularly beautiful in the chorale, 'Nun danket alle Gott'. Abbado's expansiveness and his more luminous choral sound has one forgetting the obvious shortcomings of the work with its unavoidable element of Victorian blandness.
It is that avoidance of Victorian blandness which is striking in Abbado's accounts of Nos 1 and 5. In No 1 he is tough and biting, slower and simpler in the second movement, returning to a tough, dark manner for the Minuet and finale.
This is a performance which has one marvelling that Mendelssohn could have ever have countenanced the idea of the Octet Scherzo as substitute, a piece so different in mood. The first movement of the Reformation finds Abbado in dramatic mood, and crisper and again quicker in the second movement Allegro vivace. (For individual comments on the Scottish and Italian symphonies see following review.) As for the overtures they too bring fresh and attractive performances, very fast and fleet in the fairy music of A Midsummer NightsDream and with the contrast between first and second subjects of The Hebrides underlined.
This was one of Abbado's biggest recording projects with the orchestra of which he was music director, and remains a richly rewarding legacy.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“This is a bracing yet sensitive performance...Sawallisch yields to no-one in the infectious bounce of the Scherzo, or the flowing, unaffected eloquence of the Adagio [of the Scottish]” Gramophone Magazine, December 2009