Italian Immersion

This would not be the album to start with for newcomers to SMB's canon, but for true fans it deserves closer attention. This is Steve Miller's most daring and experimental album. Made in the mid-80s when synthesizer dominated music was at its peak popularity, it is prominently dated by the recording and production techniques that marked nearly every album released in this era. The album's format seems to follow a theme which is incomprehensible, but once you decide to drop attempts to figure out what it's supposed to mean and allow the weirdness and strange beauty of these songs to wash over you it's great fun…

After Haydn, Beethoven and Schubert, Jordi Savall continues his journey into the 19th century with the Italian Symphony of Felix Mendelssohn, a composer he records for the first time. He delivers 2 versions of the work: the one which was performed at the wolrdwide premiere in 1833 and the revised one from 1834. The most conspicuous changes are to be found in the last tree movements. The comparison of the two scores and the performance on period instruments take us as close to Mendelssohn's work and original intention as we will ever get. Thanks to Jordi Savall's insightful conducting, there is still something to discover in Mendelssohn's most famous symphony.