Mendelssohn Hebrides

This release from the London Symphony Orchestra's LSO Live series features a program that the orchestra must have played hundreds of times over its long history: Mendelssohn's well-loved Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Op. 56 ("Scottish"), and Hebrides Overture, Op. 26, with the Schumann Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54, in between. There are substantial attractions, but they don't necessarily come where some think they might. What truly sets this recording apart is the extraordinarily graceful performance of the Schumann by Portuguese (and now Brazilian) pianist Maria João Pires, with the LSO keeping itself carefully subordinated to her unusually quiet performance.

The best period instrument recording of Mendelssohn Symphonies 3,4,5 and Overtures " the Hebrides" and "Calm sea and Prosperous Voyage". Bruggen's tempos are moderate and textures are very clear: you can hear individual voices in the orchestra not obvious in many recordings. The Orchestra of the 18th Century play with a full sound and are never scrawny. Orchestra of the 18th Century's horns, clarinet, and flutes were very well played in these live recordings from 1990, 1994, 1995, and 1996.

This album uses the term “discoveries” rather loosely, especially as it applies to the Piano Concerto No. 3 in E minor, for which the third movement existed only as an incomplete sketch. This was reconstructed and finished by Mendelssohn specialist Marcello Bufalini and premiered in 2007. The resulting work is full of buoyant energy, but it’s oddly short on melodic distinction–not a characteristic we normally associate with Mendelssohn. What it does have is some wonderfully bravura piano writing, delivered with engaging brio by Roberto Prosseda, whose masterful technique makes it a bit easier to overlook the music’s shortcomings.

No doubt, this is one of the pinnacles of Abbado and the LSO recording collaboration; these symphonies are presented with a keener sense of joy, bite and forward momentum, perfectly executed throughout by the orchestra. As supplement, the set brings the Scherzo that Mendelssohn orchestrated to become a new 3rd movement of the Symphony no.1, as well excellent performances of 3 overtures, including the famous Hebrides. Note that this is the first edition of the set; there's a recent one that comes with more overtures, that were originally released in a separate cd.

This Sony-made 30CD classical music collection covers almost all classical music, from the early Baroque period represented by Bach to the schools of classical music by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms represent romantic, national and even modern musical schools led by Schubert, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Dvorak, Tchaikovsky, Chopin, etc. representative, everything wonderful and vivid.

To determine the worth of this 40-disc set called Mendelssohn: The Masterworks, let's assign values to each disc on a scale of one to ten and then add up the total. To start with, there are 10 discs of Mendelssohn's complete choral works with Nicol Matt leading the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Since these performances are uniformly well sung and directed and possess an uncommon amount of enthusiasm for the recherché repertoire, let's give them eight points each for a total of 80 points.

Conductor Wilhelm Furtwangler already enjoyed a worldwide legendary standing during his lifetime - he was considered the German conductor and performances were greeted with rapturous applause. Today, more than 50 years after his death, Wilhelm Furtwangler is still an icon and his work has become an integral part ofthe music scene.