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Complete Symphonies vol. 2: Symphony nos.1 & 3
Felix Mendelssohn

Complete Symphonies vol. 2: Symphony nos.1 & 3

The Netherlands Symphony Orchestra / Jan Willem de Vriend

Label: Challenge Classics
Format: SACD
Barcode: 0608917264128
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Catalog number: CC 72641
Releasedate: 20-06-14
Jan Willem de Vriend
The Netherlands Symphony Orchestra 
  • This is the second volume in De Vriend/ Netherland Symphony Orchestra survey of Mendelssohn's complete symphonies.
  • The entire series will be released on SACD
  • De Vriend's fresh, innovative approach to the classical/romantic repertoire is by now attested by many critics and reviews
  • Also in Mendelssohn case, De Vriend has got to the recording session after a deep musicological research on composer's life and work.
  • In this particular disc let's highlight the conductor's decision to use natural horns and trumpets with pistons.
What is particularly amazing about the Mendelssohn symphonies is the fact that he is both harking back to old masters like Bach, and, as a child of his time, looking ahead. Especially his Italian and Scottish symphonies are pointing at the future, since Mendelssohn lived in the era of discovery, of der Wanderer. Goethe came up with his jungen Werther, a guy who went away to discover the world and upon returning nothing looked the same. And that is exactly what you can hear in his music: astonishment, translated into music using harmonies we maybe already knew but which in his hands sounded completely fresh and new. Having said that, you can also hear an old-school musical approach. Mendelssohn sometimes uses fugues or chorales we know from older styles. He was the first to bring back those trustworthy techniques – and that, in itself, was also new.