Mendelssohn's 3rd Symphony - Recordings that you enjoy

[flyingdutchman]

Yes, I did enjoy it. This is the Solti:



although it is from 1990 rather than 1986. Very pleasing.

Found it at my local library.  Will check it out.

[Hector]

Found it at my local library.  Will check it out.

I shiver at the thought of Solti bashing this to death.

LCP, Norrington for me.

[Gurn Blanston]

I shiver at the thought of Solti bashing this to death.

LCP, Norrington for me.

I understand your concern, and yet that's not how it is. You should give it a try.

I'll have a go at the Norrington. My Harnoncourt arrived yesterday, but no time to listen to it yet. Hopefully this evening.

[karlhenning]

I understand your concern, and yet that's not how it is. You should give it a try.

Doesn't surprise me, Gurn.  A few times WCRB has played Solti leading Haydn.  Never excessive, though the overall tone has a kind of glaze that wears (for me) over time.

[Gurn Blanston]

Doesn't surprise me, Gurn.  A few times WCRB has played Solti leading Haydn.  Never excessive, though the overall tone has a kind of glaze that wears (for me) over time.

Yes, a lot of his success depends on the work. I see the Scottish as needing appropriate firepower in certain places, yet suitable restraint in others. Solti actually manages the restraint very well, and of course, he is never at a loss for firepower.

[karlhenning]

In the Armory of Music, Solti is loaded for bear . . . .

[Lilas Pastia]

Doesn't surprise me, Gurn.  A few times WCRB has played Solti leading Haydn.  Never excessive, though the overall tone has a kind of glaze that wears (for me) over time.

That's an approptiate decription, Karl!

IMO, Solti did his best work with the english orchestras (LSO and LPO). I like his Haydn, but you're right about the weariness that comes with repeated exposure.

[adamdavid80]

Picked up the Stephen Hough PCs 1&2 on Hyperion.  Very impressive, but so far not connecting emotionally to it.  Note-perfect, and a little too much so.  Almost to the point of it having been programmed into a computer rather than conducted.

A couple more listens might get a little more out of me for it, but so far the Perahia (despite VERY audible hiss) is still my personal pick for this one...

[Gurn Blanston]

Picked up the Stephen Hough PCs 1&2 on Hyperion.  Very impressive, but so far not connecting emotionally to it.  Note-perfect, and a little too much so.  Almost to the point of it having been programmed into a computer rather than conducted.

A couple more listens might get a little more out of me for it, but so far the Perahia (despite VERY audible hiss) is still my personal pick for this one...

Sorry, Adam, but if you cn stand Perahia's hiss, and not even TRY Serkin's with its very limited hiss, then you can't have a personal pick yet. We won't allow it...    Try it, you'll love it. (and I'm not even pushy! )



----------------
Listening to:
Mendelssohn Symphonies Nos. 3 & 4 Scottish & Italian - Nikolaus Harnoncourt: Chamber Orchestra Of Europe - Symphony No. 3 in A minor, op. 56 Andante con moto - Allegro un poco agitato

[adamdavid80]

Sorry, Adam, but if you cn stand Perahia's hiss, and not even TRY Serkin's with its very limited hiss, then you can't have a personal pick yet. We won't allow it...    Try it, you'll love it. (and I'm not even pushy! )



----------------
Listening to:
Mendelssohn Symphonies Nos. 3 & 4 Scottish & Italian - Nikolaus Harnoncourt: Chamber Orchestra Of Europe - Symphony No. 3 in A minor, op. 56 Andante con moto - Allegro un poco agitato

I repicked up the serkin!  haven't listened to it yet, but the perahia might edge out any and all comers simply for the sentimental reasons of it was among the very first classical discs I ever bought.

[Gurn Blanston]

I repicked up the serkin!  haven't listened to it yet, but the perahia might edge out any and all comers simply for the sentimental reasons of it was among the very first classical discs I ever bought.

Can't argue with your logic: the Serkin was my first ever Mendelssohn disk, and my first shot at piano concertos outside of the Classical Era. So the sentimental favorite. I did, however, give it many chances to be topped. It never was...

[Gurn Blanston]

I got my last new acquisition in this series the other day, and have now had 2 listens to it, so a quick report of my impressions.

Chamber Orchestra of Europe / Harnoncourt - The playing is, as always with this orchestra, impeccable to my ears. Harnoncourt keeps the tempi just a touch slower than what has become the usual, but not to anything remotely like dragging. Even the critical Allegro maestoso assai moves right along with no hint of ponderousness, although without the punch of Solti. The Chicago winds just have so much reserve power that they seem to be coasting where others are pushing. This is not a deal breaker, however, since many (most) people don't share my taste for head banging brass sections anyway...    The only point I felt was a bit weak, and it may have been my listening rather than the playing, is that in a couple of places in the extended Adagio 3rd movement where they seem to kind of get lost and wander a bit before getting back on track. Like I say, that was probably me since I tend to get lost and wander a bit during extended Adagios....

So thanks to everyone who responded on this thread. Exploring Scotland via Mendelssohn's musical vision has provided a great deal of pleasure for me, and also expanded my library just a bit more.



----------------
Listening to:
K 239 Serenade in D "Serenata Notturna" (HIP) - Academy of Ancient Music \ Hogwood - K 239 Serenade in D 2nd mvmt - Menuetto & Trio

[adamdavid80]

Chamber Orchestra of Europe

What do you think of COE's Mozart works?  I'm thiking of getting the 5 disc set...worth it?

[Gurn Blanston]

What do you think of COE's Mozart works?  I'm thiking of getting the 5 disc set...worth it?

If you mean the 5 disk set of wind works by the COE Wind Soloists, by all means, it's a gem. I don't have another, although I am sure there must be.



----------------
Listening to:
Mozart: The Symphonies - Pinnock, Trevor; The English Concert - Symphony #20 in D, K. 133: II. Andante

[Drasko]

Klemperer held the notion that in the original "glorious" finale, "Kapellmeister Mendelssohn defeated composer Mendelssohn." That is, he thought Mendelssohn wrote that ending just to please the audience at the expense of aesthetics. So what did he do? Simple, he wrote new coda, quiet one, which according to Klemperer musically better suits what has gone before. Was he right? Hear for yourselves:

[mp3=200,20,0,left]http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/7/24/2018019/RSO%20Bav.Klemperer%20-%20Track04.mp3[/mp3]
IV Allegro vivacissimo - Allegro maestoso assai (Coda: Otto Klemperer)

Bavarian Radio Symphony / Otto Klemperer (live, 23.05.1969, Herkulessaal, Munchen)

[MichaelRabin]

How did you insert the music file onto the thread and put the play, pause, download button on the Klemperer thread, Drasko? Thanks.

[nut-job]

Dohnanyi/VPO is very vivid in his Mendelssohn cycle, as good as it gets, IMO.

[Brian]

[mp3=200,20,0,left]http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/7/24/2018019/RSO%20Bav.Klemperer%20-%20Track04.mp3[/mp3]
IV Allegro vivacissimo - Allegro maestoso assai (Coda: Otto Klemperer)

Bavarian Radio Symphony / Otto Klemperer (live, 23.05.1969, Herkulessaal, Munchen)

Funnily enough, I don't think he went far enough. My main objection is to the last few bars; the first part of the new coda was actually quite good. Now that the possibility has been broached, it would make more sense if the repeated iterations of that main theme simply faded into nothingness, maybe with the ascending 1-2-3-4-5 wind line over one last dying chord as the violins slip quietly away. An even more radical ending, yes, but one mirroring the way that the symphony opened: out of the Scottish gloom, and now back in.

[Drasko]

How did you insert the music file onto the thread and put the play, pause, download button on the Klemperer thread, Drasko? Thanks.

Upload the audio file to some hosting site which allows direct linking - like fileden http://www.fileden.com/
Then paste the the link of the file into your post, highlight it and click on this icon right above the smileys.

[Lilas Pastia]

Thanks for this highly unusual reading, Milos! Klemperer's Mendelssohn has always figured way up my list (Midsummer Night's Dream , symphonies 3 and esp. 4). I had read about this recomposed coda and am glad I heard it. I can understand Klemperer's misgivings on the original coda (it sounds clumsily grafted on the end of IV instead of welling up fom it) but I can't say his solution is better than the original. And the culprit might well be the conductor himself: I have always thought his take on the symphony was just perfect until the coda. He takes it Moderato maestoso e molto lethargico.  But lo and behold, he takes the same approach to his own recomposed ending. In the end, I think he was not the right advocate for the task. Too bad, as the allegro that precedes it is  deliberate yet sharply pointed, with an impressive balance of weigth and transparence to the strings.