Mendelssohn in Birmingham, Volume 5
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FELIX MENDELSSOHN
Mendelssohn in Birmingham, Volume 5
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Edward Gardner
[ Chandos SACD / Hybrid SACD ]
Release Date: Friday 31 May 2019
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Edward Gardner's Mendelssohn in Birmingham series continues with an album that collects eight overtures.
As on the previous volumes, a reduced-size CBSO joins Gardner in Birmingham's Town Hall, where Mendelsohn himself conducted many of the UK premieres of his own orchestral works.
Mendelssohn composed the majority of the works in the programme as concert overtures, spanning the length of his career, from the early Ein Sommernachtstraum (A Midsummer Night's Dream), composed when he was just sixteen, through to Ruy Blas, written towards the end of his life.
He composed two of these overtures as the opening movement of larger works: Paulus, his first great oratorio, from 1836, and Athalie, incidental music written for Racine's play.
The 'Trumpet' Overture is the earliest work here, written possibly to precede a performance of Handel's Israel in Egypt, and allegedly the favourite, among Mendelssohn's works, of Mendelssohn's father!
"The most striking feature of these performances is their remarkable clarity of texture which even in the more forceful passages enables us to hear every strand of Mendelssohn's incredibly resourceful orchestration. Indeed there's a fluidity and vividness to Gardner's interpretations which is fully supported by the superbly responsive playing from the CBSO." BBC Music
"The performances, as one might expect, are for the most part exemplary. Gardner is often keenly alert to both the emotional tone and innovations in sonority and structure of each work." Gramophone
Tracks:
Overture to 'Paulus', Op.26 (1832-36) *
Die schöne Melusine, Op.32 (1833-34, revised 1835)*
'Trumpet' Overture, Op.101 (c.1825-26, revised 1833) *
The Hebrides, Op.26 (1830, revised 1832) *
Overture to 'Athalie', Op.74 (1842-44) *
Ein Sommernachtstraum, Op.21 (1826) *
Meeresstill und glückliche Fahrt, Op.27 (1828, revised 1834) †
Overture to 'Roy Blas', Op.95 (1839, revised 1844) †
Zoë Beyers* • Laurence Jackson† leaders
