My first consideration when
reviewing this CD was the title –‘Mendelssohn in Birmingham’. Clearly the CBSO
is a locally-based orchestra, so that much is understood. As far as I was aware,
none of these present works were written for, or first performed in, that great
city. The composer first visited Birmingham in 1837 shortly after his marriage
to Cécile. Missing
the company of his new wife, he is famously noted for having suggested that he
‘let Birmingham go hang.’ That years’
Music Festival was a huge success and featured St. Paul and the Second Piano Concerto. Three years later, Mendelssohn had returned
to the city, this time by train on the newly-opened line from London. The works
performed included his First Piano Concerto and ‘Lobgesang’. In 1846 he triumphed with the premiere of Elijah.
The following year saw a repeat of that work, this time in its revised version.
A few months later the composer was dead.
The City of Birmingham Orchestra
with their principal guest conductor Edward Gardner, have begun a series of CDs
dedicated to the Symphonies of Mendelssohn. I understand that No.1 & 3 are
to be released in the near future. There is also a concert tie-in to the CDs at
the Birmingham Town Hall.
Little need be said about the
history and content of these three well-known works. However a few notes will
remind the listener of their place in Mendelssohn’s canon. I have always struggled with the
‘Reformation’ Symphony. I guess that the seemingly ephemeral nature of the work
has put me off: I find it hard to get worked up about the celebration of a
theological tract, no matter how important in the history of Europe. I am indifferent to philosophical speculation
about Catholic polyphony being ‘superseded’ by Lutheran harmony: I love
both. So of all the Mendelssohn
Symphonies I have typically avoided this one.
The work was published
posthumously as Op.107, although it was written in 1829/30 when the composer
was only twenty-one years old. It was designed to commemorate the tercentenary
of the drafting of the Augsburg Protestant Confession which had occurred on 25
June 1530. The substance of the Symphony
does seem to suggest a certain ‘programmatic’ content reflecting the struggle
between the Catholics and the Lutherans. This is especially so in the opening
and closing movement where the composer makes use of the Dresden Amen in the
opening pages and quotes the great hymn ‘Ein feste Burg’ in the finale. Yet the middle two movements seem to present
something of a problem. There is nothing here that is particularly challenging
from a theological perspective. In fact, the second is a gay scherzo that
exudes sunshine and happiness in similar vein to the ‘Italian’ Symphony. The third
movement is really a romance or, as Philip Radcliffe has described it a ‘song
without words’. This is more desire of the heart than deep dogmatic
speculation.
I recommend listening to this
work by divorcing its raison d’être
from one’s mind. I believe that this makes it a satisfying symphony that
balances a degree of ‘struggle’ with beautiful moments of starry-eyed reflection.
It is a work that has gone up in my estimation since reviewing this disc.
The ‘Italian’ Symphony in A
major, Op.90 was inspired by the composer’s visit to Italy in 1831. It was
begun in 1832 and completed the following year. In the United Kingdom it is
probably the most performed of the composer’s symphonies, alongside the
‘Scottish’. There is little that is challenging in this happy evocation of the
Italian sunshine, the arts, the people and way of life. Mendelssohn did
struggle to complete it: he wrote that he had ‘the bitterest moments I have
ever endured or could have imagined’ whilst writing this work. The Italian
Symphony has four movements, the first characterised by sheer exuberance and
tuneful gaiety. The second, an ‘andante con moto,’ has been nicknamed the
‘Pilgrim’s March’. The third is a little more reserved and is signed ‘con moto
moderato’. The best-known movement is the concluding ‘saltarello’ which is
played at tremendous speed.
At present there are nearly 150
versions of this work in the Arkiv catalogue, with virtually every conductor
and orchestra having had a go at it.
‘Fingal’s Cave’, or to give it
its proper title the ‘Hebridean Overture’ is probably one of the best-known
works in the entire orchestral repertoire. The Overture was conceived shortly
after visiting the Hebrides with his friend Klingemann in 1829. Klingemann
wrote that ‘We were put out in boats and lifted by the hissing sea up a pillar
of stumps to the famous Fingal’s Cave. A greener roar of waves never rushed
into a stranger cavern – its many pillars making it look like the inside of an
immense organ, black and resounding, absolutely without purpose, and utterly
isolated, the wide grey sea within and without.’ (Fiske, Scotland in Music, 1983) The visit created an ‘exceptional
impression’ on the composer and he made a sketch of the opening ten bars
virtually there and then. He was once
asked to describe his visit to the Hebrides and he replied that it cannot be
told in words, only played in music. He self-deprecatingly suggested that the
middle section of the work was bad, ‘it smells more of counterpoint than of
waves, seagulls and salt fish’.
The work was completed in 1832
and was performed at London in 1833 at Covent Garden by the London Philharmonic
Orchestra under Thomas Atwood. Like the ‘Italian’
Symphony there are more than a hundred recordings currently available.
The liner notes by Bayan
Northcott and Gerald Larner are fascinating and demand study. The CD looks and
feels good: especially the cover which features a pen and ink sketch of
Birmingham made by the composer.
It is impossible to compare
recordings of these works when there are literally hundreds of versions
currently available. So I use my all-purpose criteria for judging any piece of
music. Did it move me? The answer is a resounding ‘Yes!’ The playing is enthusiastic and balances the
intimacy and drama of much of this music. Gardner is sympathetic to the nuances
of ‘Fingal’s Cave’ and the sun-drenched pages of the ‘Italian’ Symphony: he has
given me a version of the ‘Reformation’ Symphony that I can do business with.
I look forward to reviewing the
second volume in this series with my favourite Mendelssohn symphony, the ‘Scottish’.
TrackListing
Felix MENDELSSOHN
(1809-1847)
The Hebrides, Op.26 (1830/32)
Symphony No.5 Op.107 ‘Reformation’ (1829-30)
Symphony No.4 Op.90 ‘Italian’ (1831-33)
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra/Edward Gardner CHANDOS CHSA5132
With thanks to MusicWeb International where this review was first published.
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