New Releases

[Mirror Image]

There is also Roberto Prosseda on Decca, completed and supercomplete (includes not only literally everything he wrote for piano, but also the piano 4-hand works). 10 CDs in all.

I have the Martin Jones set on Nimbus but at 6 CDs it's clearly not complete and the sound is far from ideal, though serviceable.

This Markovina set is very tempting indeed.

Great! The three volin sonatas are early works but utterly charming and quite different in character. Mendelssohn was a genius, no doubt about it.

Thanks, Andrei. I may look into the Prosseda on Decca. Looks like a one-stop shop for Mendelssohn's solo piano music. I'm also considering the complete string quartets set with the Pacifica Quartet.

[Florestan]

Would a Milanese church actually appoint a 16 year old as titular organist?

I see no reason why they wouldn't if the boy was a genius of organ playing. 

[Todd]

[Florestan]

Thanks, Andrei. I may look into the Prosseda on Decca. Looks like a one-stop shop for Mendelssohn's solo piano music. I'm also considering the complete string quartets set with the Pacifica Quartet.

Don't know the Pacifica set but can vouchsafe for the Eroica Quartet. They mop the floor with any notion that Mendelssohn was just a bland and complacent purveyor of music for the (Victorian) bourgeoisie; their account is muscular, passionate, quirky, Sturm-und-Drang-ish, hot-white Romantic, even aggressive at times. Revelatory.

[Brian]

Markovina is 12 CDs and includes a LOT of sketches and youthful pieces. I sampled a bit of her Op. 35 on streaming yesterday and did not love the acoustic/engineering, but that is a matter of taste. Prosseda is formidable competition.

[Florestan]

Markovina is 12 CDs and includes a LOT of sketches and youthful pieces. I sampled a bit of her Op. 35 on streaming yesterday and did not love the acoustic/engineering, but that is a matter of taste. Prosseda is formidable competition.

Care to elaborate a bit, Brian?

[Mirror Image]

Don't know the Pacifica set but can vouchsafe for the Eroica Quartet. They mop the floor with any notion that Mendelssohn was just a bland and complacent purveyor of music for the (Victorian) bourgeoisie; their account is muscular, passionate, quirky, Sturm-und-Drang-ish, hot-white Romantic, even aggressive at times. Revelatory.

Thanks, Andrei. I'll look into it.

[Florestan]

hot-white

I think it's actually white-hot? English native speakers, please help.

[Brian]

Care to elaborate a bit, Brian?

Distant, treble heavy, not very "full" in color. And yes, white-hot  it comes from the white part of a fire being hotter than the red.

[Florestan]

Distant, treble heavy, not very "full" in color.

Thanks. Not quite enticing, honestly.

Actually, I'm not even sure I need any Mendelssohn solo piano music besides Songs without Words of which I already have plenty of versions. 

And yes, white-hot  it comes from the white part of a fire being hotter than the red.

Thanks again. Makes sense. I'm sure that besides hot-white I used red-hot in the past, which is equally wrong. 

[JBS]

Thanks. Not quite enticing, honestly.

Actually, I'm not even sure I need any Mendelssohn solo piano music besides Songs without Words of which I already have plenty of versions. 

That's like saying you've got the WTC so you don't need any more of Bach's solo keyboard stuff.

[Florestan]

That's like saying you've got the WTC so you don't need any more of Bach's solo keyboard stuff.

Is it really? What is the Mendelssohn equivalent of Bach's Partitas for keyboard? or of the English and French suites? or of the Goldberg Variations? or of the Art of Fugue? or even of the Aria Variata alla Maniera Italiana or Capriccio sopra la Lontananza del Suo Fratello Dilettissimo?

[Mandryka]

Interesting coming release

AoF Kenneth Weiss

https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/art-of-fugue/hnum/10818865

There are some sneak peeks on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttqH2sD2yag&list=PLej1CPrsp2qpR41C9p4nU6z1toGaHQjwH&ab_channel=SATIRINOIanMalkin

(Sounds middle of the road mainstream HIP to me.)

[Brian]

Is it really? What is the Mendelssohn equivalent of Bach's Partitas for keyboard? or of the English and French suites? or of the Goldberg Variations? or of the Art of Fugue? or even of the Aria Variata alla Maniera Italiana or Capriccio sopra la Lontananza del Suo Fratello Dilettissimo?

Personally I enjoy Mendelssohn's preludes and fugues Op. 35 quite a lot, very much a Bach tribute, and the Variations serieuses tend to show up on a lot of pianists' mixed programs. I occasionally encounter some other works like the early piano sonata, but don't know a lot about them or important recordings of them.

[prémont]

There are some sneak peeks on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttqH2sD2yag&list=PLej1CPrsp2qpR41C9p4nU6z1toGaHQjwH&ab_channel=SATIRINOIanMalkin

(Sounds middle of the road mainstream HIP to me.)

Nothing wrong with that. Such interpretations often get better with each listening.

[Karl Henning]

I think it's actually white-hot? English native speakers, please help.

yes.

[Karl Henning]

Thanks. Not quite enticing, honestly.

Actually, I'm not even sure I need any Mendelssohn solo piano music besides Songs without Words of which I already have plenty of versions. 

Thanks again. Makes sense. I'm sure that besides hot-white I used red-hot in the past, which is equally wrong. 

red-hot is also good English.

[Madiel]

Just recently I saw a meme that goes around from time to time about how English-speakers have a very particular sense of the order that adjectives should be in. We're scarcely conscious of it, but it's there.

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/adjectives-order

However in this particular case, "red" or "white" is an adjective about the amount of heat.

So you would in fact talk about a hot white object, if "hot" and "white" were separate qualities and the fact that the object was white had nothing to do with the temperature. But you would talk about a white-hot object when you're saying that it's so hot, the heat is causing it glow white.

[aukhawk]

In the context that Florestan used it, hot-white Romantic made perfectly good sense, was poetic even.

[Spotted Horses]

In the context that Florestan used it, hot-white Romantic made perfectly good sense, was poetic even.

Without the hyphen it would be correct, following the accepted order of adjectives. Slight variations are found but it is generally the rule is determiner, quantity, opinion, size, physical quality, shape, age, color, origin, material, type, and purpose. Hot is a physical quality, white is a color. It describes a white object which is hot.

However, in the idiom "red-hot iron" or "white-hot iron" the color modifies hot, not the object. As Brian alluded to, it harks back to the Planck radiation law, which describes how the color an object glows is determined entirely by the temperature, rather than any characteristics of the object. Glass, iron, lava, etc, glow the same shade of red if it is at the same temperature. As temperature progressively increases an object will predominantly emit infared, red, orange, yellow, white...