Howard Shelley – The Complete Solo Piano Music, Vol. 3 (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:04:27 minutes | 1,04 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Hyperion Records
One of the very great pianists of the nineteenth century, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1809–1847) achieved legendary status for his performances and improvisations alike, though his piano compositions generally have not withstood comparison with the very best keyboard music of the century. The one piano sonata he published was deemed not to have broken new ground after Beethoven’s path-breaking thirty-two; he created no large-scale cyclic works comparable to Robert Schumann’s hybrid literary/musical fantasies for the instrument; his meticulously crafted Lieder ohne Worte exuded for many a refined romanticism not as soul-searching as the miniatures of Chopin or Brahms; and nowhere did his technical demands on the pianist challenge the Promethean exertions of Liszt.
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London Symphony Orchestra, Sir John Eliot Gardiner – Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 5 ‘Reformation’ & Overtures (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 47:09 minutes | 840 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © LSO Live
Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the London Symphony Orchestra join forces once again in the latest instalment of their exploration of Mendelssohn’s symphonies.
Mendelssohn’s Symphony No 5, commonly known as the ‘Reformation’ Symphony, was written in 1830 to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the Augsberg confession – a seminal event in the Protestant Reformation. Allusions to the symphony’s title and inspiration can be heard throughout the music itself; the Dresden Amen is cited by the strings in the first movement whilst the finale is based on Martin Luther’s well-known chorale Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott (‘A Mighty Fortress is Our God’).
Coupled with this are two of Mendelssohn’s overtures, Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage and Ruy Blas, both of which were inspired by literary works. Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage, based on two short poems by Goethe, depicts the journey of sailors at sea with a still adagio opening ultimately giving way to a triumphant homecoming. Completing the album, the overture Ruy Blas was commissioned by the Leipzig Theatre as an overture to Victor Hugo’s tragic drama of the same name.
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Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Pablo Heras-Casado – Mendelssohn: Symphonie No. 2 “Lobgesang” (2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:01:46 minutes | 605 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © harmonia mundi
Mendelssohn’s Second Symphony (known as Lobgesang, or Hymn of Praise), was described by him as a “symphony-cantata”; in a similar manner to Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, it consists of three purely instrumental movements followed by an extended closing section featuring choir and soloists. It is a piece that often seems to sit in the shadow of that masterpiece of Old Testament storytelling, Elijah.
The opening motif is a tricky one to handle; so simple in its own right, yet the linchpin of the entire work. Here it is subtly phrased rather than declaimed dramatically; Heras-Casado is evidently keeping his powder dry, treating this initial statement as the seed from which the rest of the performance grows.
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Berliner Philharmoniker, Herbert von Karajan – Mendelssohn: Symphonies Nos. 3 & 4 (1971/2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:18:38 minutes | 1,49 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
These historic performances of Mendelssohn’s “Scottish” and “Italian” symphonies were recorded in Berlin in January 1971 with the Berliner Philharmoniker, part of their highly acclaimed cycle of all five Mendelssohn’s symphonies.
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Berliner Philharmoniker & Herbert von Karajan – Mendelssohn: Symphonies Nos. 3 & 4; Hebrides Overture (1971,1973/2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:18:38 minutes | 1,53 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
“Karajan’s Berlin Philharmonic performance is worthy of Mendelssohn’s inspiration, and this album makes a splendid memento of a famous Scottish visit.” (Penguin Guide)
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London Symphony Orchestra, Sir John Eliot Gardiner – Mendelssohn: Symphnies Nos. 1 & 4 ‘Italian’ (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:02:16 minutes | 1,80 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © LSO Live
Constantly in the vanguard of enlightened interpretation, Sir John Eliot Gardiner stands as a leader in today’s musical life. His award-winning Mendelssohn cycle on LSO Live showcases his period performance expertise, the musicians standing to play, highlighting their individual musicianship. As Gardiner explains: ‘It gives a different type of dynamism and energy… it means that the fiddles are freer in the way that they attack the extremely virtuosic lines and it gives a tremendous sense of occasion to the music making.’
Dramatic and harmonically adventurous, Mendelssohn’s First Symphony is presented here in an exceptionally unique format, with both the original and revised versions of the third movement. As Gardiner said when introducing the work in concert:
‘It’s not every evening that you get to hear a symphony by a fourteen-and-a-half year-old genius and there’s an intriguing complication to this piece. When Mendelssohn came to London in 1829, he performed the symphony and he wrote back to his parents saying: “well, I looked over my symphony and, lord, the minuet bored me to tears! So what I did was to take the scherzo from my Octet and I added a few airy trumpets and it sounded lovely.” Well, actually he did an awful lot more than that; he re-orchestrated absolutely brilliantly. And it’s so good, we thought you should hear that version. But what about the minuet and trio? Why, when he came to publish the symphony did he use that version and leave out the scherzo? I happen to think they’re both really remarkable, as is the whole symphony, and perhaps you’d let us know which you prefer…?’
The Fourth Symphony is inspired by the sights, sounds and atmosphere of Italy and is among the best loved of all the composer’s works. Mendelssohn described it as: ‘the jolliest piece I’ve written so far.’ John Eliot Gardiner says of the work: ‘Mendelssohn threw everything, in terms of virtuosity and risk-taking, at the Italian Symphony and it’s remained incredibly popular…
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Escher String Quartet – Mendelssohn: String Quartets Nos. 1 & 4 (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:20:10 minutes | 1,48 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BIS Records AB
Founded in 2005, the Escher String Quartet is still a young ensemble as string quartets go. It has nevertheless become established as one of the most exciting quartets around, both in its home country, the U.S.A., and elsewhere, recently being shortlisted for a BBC Music Magazine Award. With their début disc on BIS, the Eschers launch a three-disc cycle of Mendelssohn’s string quartets, including the unnumbered String Quartet in E flat major and – on coming instalments – the four pieces for string quartet Op. 81. The quartet genre accompanied Mendelssohn throughout his life, from the previously mentioned E flat major quartet – which he composed at the age of 14 – to String Quartet No. 6 in F minor, his last major work, completed only two months before his death in 1847. As a body, the quartets demonstrate many of Mendelssohn’s finest qualities as a composer – his fascination for and understanding of the music of both Bach and Beethoven, his affinity for string instruments, and that gift for melody as well as texture which has made his Lieder ohne Worte and the elfin music to A Midsummer Night’s Dream so eternally popular. Composed in 1829, the Quartet Op. 12 is still an early work – from the time of the Hebrides Overture – while the E minor quartet, Op. 44 No. 2, can be counted as one of the first master-pieces by the mature composer.
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Julia Fischer, Jonathan Gilad, Daniel Müller-Schott – Mendelssohn: Piano Trios Nos. 1 & 2 (2006)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 59:04 minutes | 989 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © PentaTone
“Since the foundation of PentaTone Classics in 2001, their enterprising programming; appealing contemporary presentations; consistently high quality performances and state of the art recordings have been nothing short of astonishing. I look forward enthusiastically to each of their stylish new releases and this hybrid Super Audio CD of Mendelssohn’s two Piano Trios was no exception. After a check of the accompanying marketing information it seems that this disc has already been selected as a Gramophone ‘Editor’s Choice’ and the recipient of a Diapason d’Or award.
PentaTone have provided a smart contemporary presentation, interesting and detailed annotation, excellent sonics together with superb performances. What more could one ask. This is certainly a disc to dash out and purchase.” –Michael Cookson, Music Web
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Elisabeth Leonskaja – Mendelssohn: Piano Concertos 1 & 2, Piano Music (2006)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:07:46 minutes | 946 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © MDG Records
Elisabeth Leonskaja is a highly respected (former Soviet) pianist whose career blossomed in the shadow of Sviatoslav Richter and Emil Gilels. Known for her modesty – not unlike older compatriot Maria Yudina – Leonskaja was mentored by Richter and often played duets with him. She would never reach the critical and artistic heights of her great teacher, but her reputation as an imaginative interpreter and formidable technician have lifted her to almost legendary status, with comparisons to Clara Haskil and other keyboard icons. Her choice of repertory has been fairly conservative over the years, with staples in the concerto and solo genres by Chopin, Liszt, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, and with much chamber music. In the latter realm, she has collaborated with the Alban Berg and Borodin quartets, with the Vienna Philharmonic Chamber Ensemble, with cellist Heinrich Schiff, and many other artists. Leonskaja has made numerous recordings with a variety of labels, including Melodiya, Teldec, Elektra, MD&G, and others. Leonskaja was born on November 23, 1945, in Tbilisi, Georgia, to Russian parents. She was an exceptionally gifted child, giving her first concert at 11. She studied music at the Moscow Conservatory and, while there, won prizes in several prestigious international competitions, including the Queen Elizabeth, Marguerite Long, and Enescu. Leonskaja was soon noticed by Richter and the two developed what would be a lifelong friendship, often appearing together in duet concerts. In 1978 she emigrated to the West, settling in Vienna. Her debut at the 1979 Salzburg Festival was a great triumph, after which she quickly established a reputation that yielded invitations in the next decades from the leading orchestras abroad, including those in New York, Cleveland, Los Angeles, London, Berlin, Leipzig, and Hamburg. Leonskaja’s recordings were drawing acclaim as well: her 1992 CD of Brahms’ sonatas won Belgium’s prestigious Caecilia Prize. In 1996 Teldec released what would be one of Richter’s last recordings, duet sonatas by Mozart and Grieg, with Leonskaja. Richter died the following year. In the new century Leonskaja has been very active on the concert scene with numerous appearances at major concert venues. She debuted at Carnegie Hall in November 2006 with Kurt Masur leading the London Philharmonic Orchestra in an acclaimed performance of the challenging Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 2. Among her later recordings is another highly praised Brahms CD, this one an MD&G release of piano music from Opp. 116-119.
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Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Örebro, Thomas Dausgaard – Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:09:06 minutes | 1,07 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BIS Records
Following a series of acclaimed recordings of 19th-century music including complete cycles of the symphonies by Schubert and Schumann, Thomas Dausgaard and his Swedish Chamber Orchestra turn to Felix Mendelssohn. The team’s latest offering unites three of the composer’s four celebrated concert overtures, written between 1826 and 1835 and setting new standards for this emerging genre: Mendelssohn’s overtures are also tone poems, combining a Classical conception with Romantic expressivity. The earliest of the three – A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Mendelssohn composed at the age of seventeen, and his sister Fanny later remarked how Shakespeare’s play had been a constant presence at their home, and ‘how at various ages we had read all the different roles, from Peaseblossom to Hermia and Helena…’ The overture immediately became one of Mendelssohn’s signature pieces, and seventeen years later he returned to it, composing additional incidental music for a stage production of the play. Written for soloists, women’s choir and orchestra, the complete Midsummer Night score is included here. The disc opens with the last of the four overtures to be composed, however: The Fair Melusine, which Mendelssohn wrote after having heard an opera based on the old French tale of the water spirit Mélusine and her sad fate. Actively disliking the opera, Mendelssohn was provoked into his own musical setting of the subject matter in the form of a concert overture. Water – and its depiction in music – also plays an important role in The Hebrides, the closing work on the present recording. Inspired by the poems by Ossian – which captured the imagination of an entire generation at the beginning of the Romantic era – Mendelssohn visited Scotland and the Hebrides in 1829, and already during this trip he sent a postcard to his family, with the overture’s famous opening written down in a four-part setting.
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Alina Ibragimova – Mendelssohn: Violin Concertos & The Hebrides (2012)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 56:20 minutes | 1018 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Hyperion Records
The young violinist Alina Ibragimova is already established as an admired recording artist, standing alongside great artists of the past and present with her versions of Bach and Beethoven’s violin works. She appears on this latest release with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Vladimir Jurowski (in his Hyperion premiere) in a programme which includes a classic of the concerto repertoire: Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor, Op 64. Ibragimova’s is a glittering, knife-edge performance, her playing a portrayal in itself of the music’s passion held in control through exquisite craft. The Violin Concerto in D minor—an unusual and welcome pairing—is an early work, written when the composer was only thirteen. As with Mendelssohn’s other juvenile works it is extraordinarily accomplished and exceedingly charming.
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Menahem Pressler, Magdeburg Philharmonic – Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 23 & 27 (Live) (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:17:54 minutes | 765 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © CAvi-music
“…..Pressler has played Mozart’s piano concertos with such frequency that they can be reckoned among the works that have occupied him the most in his life. Fortunately, a wish that Pressler and the musicians of the Magdeburg Philharmonic Orchestra had been having for many years finally came true: in May and December 2016, Pressler performed as a soloist in his home town. In May he performed Mozart’s Piano Concerto in B Flat Major K595, and in December he played the Piano Concerto in A Major K488. On the subject of Mozart, he remarks: “In Mozart there are no ‘empty’ passages. Musicians often just ‘play through’ a passage because they can play it well, and they are satisfied with that. However, if the interpretation of a passage has no content, I become adamant. I know it’s hard to phrase everything correctly. But I am still as critical as I ever was. First of all toward myself, then toward my co-performers.” Fortunately these concert performances in May and December 2016 were recorded. For a performer who had then reached the age of 92 (and who celebrated his 93rd birthday on the occasion of the second Magdeburg concert on 16 December 2016), one can hear that those aforementioned daily hours of practice have truly been worth the effort. Pressler, the experienced musician, phrases the piano part with unmatched nuance. In the framework of moderately chosen tempi he masters every technical hurdle in each of these two masterpieces. Most of all, one can immediately tell that we are dealing with a pianist who not only knows very note of these concertos, but who has made each of them his own. Although Pressler has recently made several recordings on CD, these Mozart concerto recordings might be the last recorded testimony of one of the great performers of our time……”
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Menahem Pressler – Mozart: Piano Sonatas Nos. 11, 17 & 18 (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:01:33 minutes | 938 MB | Genre: Classical, Piano
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © La Dolce Volta
This is the pianist Menahem Pressler’s second disc for La Dolce Volta, recorded at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris in September 2014. Here we meet a Mozart bathed in total serenity, as if freed from all earthly contingencies and tensions, gently singing of his state of grace, with a wonderfully tender touch. An interpretation deeply moving in its very simplicity, its sheer tranquil poetry, brimming with love and affection. Here is a miraculous disc by a humble servant of music at the peak of his inspiration.
Menahem Pressler, founding member and pianist of the Beaux Arts Trio, has established himself among the world’s most distinguished and honored musicians, with a career that spans almost six decades. Now, at 91 years old, he continues to captivate audiences throughout the world as performer and pedagogue, performing solo and chamber music recitals to great critical acclaim while maintaining a dedicated and robust teaching career.
“It’s a genuine mission to fulfil the task of recording the complete Mozart sonatas. A mission that constantly has me asking questions of myself, and which sometimes has me feeling quite dizzy: can I do it? Am I right to? And yet I feel a literal attraction for these sonatas. They’re an unending source of wonder to me. It’s a joy to record them, and even an inner necessity.”
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Menahem Pressler – Menahem Pressler Performs Mozart (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:16:41 minutes | 623 MB | Genre: Classical, Piano
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © La Dolce Volta
In this second volume of his Mozart cycle, Menahem Pressler invests the music with a serenity and tenderness rarely attained in this repertory. He allows himself time to breathe, immersing himself in his sonority and giving priority to variety of colour, underlining changes of harmony, and the shaping of each phrase.
He sweeps us away on an exhilarating journey, nurtured by a lifetime devoted to seeking the essence of music.
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Menahem Pressler – Clair de lune (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:07:35 minutes | 1003 MB | Genre: Classical, Piano
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
Born 16 December 1923, today Menahem Pressler is, without a shadow of a doubt, the king of pianists, just as Mieczysław Horszowski was in the 1980s. Founder of the Beaux-Arts Trio, great and much-overlooked performer of French music, in his thirties he laid down some of the greatest recordings of Debussy (La Boîte à joujoux, Estampes, Suite bergamasque, Arabesques, La plus que lente, Rêverie) of the 1950s, for the American label MGM Records (but he also made several LPs dedicated to Prokofiev which are now completely forgotten, and the Histoires by Jacques Ibert…). Today, for Deutsche Grammophon, he has cast his mind back to that time when, standing on American soil, everything still lay ahead of him; and he has written a beautiful programme, largely centred around Debussy with the composer’s greatest hits (Arabesques, Clair de lunefrom the Suite bergamasque, several Préludes from Livre I such as La fille aux cheveux de lin), finishing with Fauré (Barcarolle No. 6) and finally Ravel ( Pavane pour une infante défunte, Oiseaux tristes). Pressler is keeping alive another piano tradition, with his sound, his sense of style, and quite simply his spirit. His Clair de lune is full of this spirit, without ever falling into mawkishness, or losing its tone of softly-spoken confidence. But for pity’s sake, Universal Music: re-release all of Pressler’s solo pieces for MGM Records. Bringing back this inestimable and now-completely-inaccessible legacy would be a truly fitting tribute to this great artist.
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