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Mendelssohn: Symphonies Nos 1-5, Overtures, A Midsummer Night's Dream – LSO Live

Mendelssohn: Symphonies Nos 1-5, Overtures,
A Midsummer Night's Dream

  • Release date: 21 September 2018
    LSO0826 | 822231182627

    4 x Hybrid SACD + Pure Audio Blu-ray

    Stereo | 5.1 multi-channel
    Total playing time: 4h 36m
    Notes in English, French & German

    Producer: Nicholas Parker
    Engineering: Classic Sound Ltd
    Recorded live at the Barbican Hall, London

  • Selected reviews for recordings on this album

    For A Midsummer Night's Dream (2017):

    Diapason's Symphonic Recording of the Year
    ‘The angelic clamours of the Monteverdi Choir almost had us believing in fairies.’

    Classica's Symphonic Recording of the Year
    '‘The mystery and worry that veils the Apollonian Nocturne, supported by the gleaming brass, is captivating.'

    Classic FM's Album of the Week

    BBC Music Magazine Orchestral Choice
    ★★★★★ 'The interplay between spoken and instrumental sections is smoothly engineered and the young actors keep things moving. But it's Mendelssohn's lyricism that wins overall: how do you sum up nearly an hour's music with just a slow, high, softly descending E major scale? Genius.'

    For Symphonies Nos 1 & 4 (2016):

    Gramophone’s Editor’s Choice
    ‘The outer movements are fiery but not over-driven, and the phrase-ends turn on a sixpence. I have not heard the slow movement better done…Outstanding.’

    For Symphony No 2 'Lobgesang' (2017):

    Gramophone Magazine’s Editor’s Choice October 2017 ‘This performance has a vitality that compels attention... a splendid way to conclude Gardiner’s splendid cycle.’

    Performance: ★★★★ Recording: ★★★★
    ‘There is much pleasure to be had in Lucy Crowe’s radiant soprano and Michael Spyres’s lyrical tenor.’
    BBC Music Magazine

    For Symphony No 3 'Scottish':

    Gramofon’s Foreign Classical Compact Disc of the Year

    Gramphone’s Editor’s Choice
    ‘Gardiner brilliantly delineates orchestral textures...’

    For Symphony No 5 'Reformation', Ruy Blas, Calm Seas and a Prosperous Voyage:

    Classic FM Drive’ Featured Album
    ‘The memorable previous release in the series – Mendelssohn's Scottish Symphony – received widespread, positive acclaim… The winning approach is repeated here…Here, the 'authentic' vibrato-less strings combine with weighty brass and woodwinds to produce a performance that shows off the work's grandeur… The LSO are on top form.’

    Performance ★★★★ Recording ★★★★
    ‘There's much to savour in Gardiner's urgently driven account of Ruy Blas, and the vibrato-less string passage that opens Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage is simply spellbinding, reminding us of the wizardry and phenomenal aural imagination that is ever present in Mendelssohn's orchestration.’
    BBC Music Magazine

£20.99

Sir John Eliot Gardiner
London Symphony Orchestra


LSO Live presents Sir John Eliot Gardiner’s award-winning Mendelssohn series together in its entirety for the first time. Captured over three seasons during critically-acclaimed concerts in the Barbican Hall, this box set offers listeners the definitive account of Gardiner’s unique take on Mendelssohn with the London Symphony Orchestra: a blend between the conductor’s wide-ranging expertise and the Orchestra’s signature sound.

This box set includes celebrated interpretations of the complete Mendelssohn symphonies, as well as three of the composer’s most popular overtures and Gardiner’s landmark version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, all in ultra high-definition stereo and multi-channel audio across four Hybrid SACDs and one Pure Audio Blu-ray.

Reflecting on this exploration of the great German composer with the LSO, Gardiner said: ‘My admiration for Mendelssohn has gone up enormously as a result of this project... It’s so rewarding working with this group of players; they’re willing to go to the last nth degree, in terms of phrasing and articulation, and that’s a joy.’

Composer   Felix Mendelssohn
Conductor   Sir John Eliot Gardiner
Soloists   Lucy Crowe, Michael Spyres, Jurgita Adamonyte
Performers   London Symphony Orchestra, Monteverdi Choir, Alexander Knox, Ceri-lyn Cissone, Frankie Wakefield
Track list
Disc 1:
1 - 5: Symphony No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 11
I. Allegro di molto
II. Andante
III. Scherzo. Sempre pianissimo e leggiero (1829 London Version)
III. Menuetto. Allegro molto (1824 Original Version)
IV. Allegro con fuoco
6: Overture Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage, Op. 27
7 - 10: Symphony No. 5, Op. 107 "The Reformation"
I. Andante - Allegro con fuoco
II. Allegro vivace
III. Andante
IV. Choral  "Ein' feste Burg ist unser Gott" (Andante con moto - Allegro vivace - Allegro maestoso)

Disc 2:
1 - 15: Symphony No. 2, Op. 52 "Lobegesang"
I. Sinfonia a) Maestoso con moto
I. Sinfonia b) Allegretto un poco agitato
I. Sinfonia c) Adagio religioso
II. a) Allegro moderato maestoso "Alles, was Odem hat, lobe den Herrn"
II. b) Molto più moderato ma con fuoco "Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele"
III. a) Recitativo "Saget es, die ihr erlöst seid durch den Herrn"
III. b) Allegro moderato "Er zählet unsre Tränen"
IV. Chor. A tempo moderato "Sagt es, die ihr erlöst seid"
V. Andante "Ich harrete des Herrn"
VI. Allegro un poco agitato "Stricke des Todes hatten uns umfangen"
VII. Allegro maestoso e molto vivace "Die Nacht ist vergangen"
VIII. a) Choral. Andante con moto "Nun danket alle Gott"
VIII. b) Un poco più animato "Lob, Ehr und Preis sei Gott"
IX. Andante sostenuto assai "Drum sing' ich mit meinem Liede ewig dein Lob"
X. Schlusschor. Allegro non troppo "Ihr Völker! bringet her dem Herrn"

Disc 3:
1: Overture Ruy Blas, Op. 95
2 - 5: Symphony No. 3 in A Minor, Op. 56 "Scottish"
I. Andante con moto - Allegro un poco agitato
II. Vivace non troppo
III. Adagio
IV. Allegro vivacissimo - Allegro maestoso assai
6 - 9: Symphony No. 4 in A Major, Op. 90 "Italian"
I. Allegro vivace
II. Andante con moto
III. Menuetto. Con moto moderato
IV. Finale (Saltarello). Presto

Disc 4:
1: The Hebrides, Op. 26 "Fingal's Cave"
2: Overture to "A Midsummer Night's Dream", Op. 21
3 - 13: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Incidental Music, Op. 61
"Ay Me! For Aught That I Could Ever Read"
No. 1, Scherzo
No. 2, L'istesso tempo
No. 2a, Allegro vivace
No. 3, Lied mit Chor
No. 4, Andante
No. 5, Allegro appassionato
No. 7, Nocturne. Con moto tranquillo
No. 8, Andante
No. 9, Hochzeitmarsch "Wedding March" - No. 12, Allegro vivace come primo
Finale. Allegro di molto

Disc 5 (Pure Audio Blu Ray): 
1 - 5: Symphony No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 11
I. Allegro di molto
II. Andante
III. Scherzo. Sempre pianissimo e leggiero (1829 London Version)
III. Menuetto. Allegro molto (1824 Original Version)
IV. Allegro con fuoco
6 - 20: Symphony No. 2, Op. 52 "Lobegesang"
I. Sinfonia a) Maestoso con moto
I. Sinfonia b) Allegretto un poco agitato
I. Sinfonia c) Adagio religioso
II. a) Allegro moderato maestoso "Alles, was Odem hat, lobe den Herrn"
II. b) Molto più moderato ma con fuoco "Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele"
III. a) Recitativo "Saget es, die ihr erlöst seid durch den Herrn"
III. b) Allegro moderato "Er zählet unsre Tränen"
IV. Chor. A tempo moderato "Sagt es, die ihr erlöst seid"
V. Andante "Ich harrete des Herrn"
VI. Allegro un poco agitato "Stricke des Todes hatten uns umfangen"
VII. Allegro maestoso e molto vivace "Die Nacht ist vergangen"
VIII. a) Choral. Andante con moto "Nun danket alle Gott"
VIII. b) Un poco più animato "Lob, Ehr und Preis sei Gott"
IX. Andante sostenuto assai "Drum sing' ich mit meinem Liede ewig dein Lob"
X. Schlusschor. Allegro non troppo "Ihr Völker! bringet her dem Herrn"
21: Overture Ruy Blas, Op. 95
22 - 25: Symphony No. 3 in A Minor, Op. 56 "Scottish"
I. Andante con moto - Allegro un poco agitato
II. Vivace non troppo
III. Adagio
IV. Allegro vivacissimo - Allegro maestoso assai
26 - 29: Symphony No. 4 in A Major, Op. 90 "Italian"
I. Allegro vivace
II. Andante con moto
III. Menuetto. Con moto moderato
IV. Finale (Saltarello). Presto
30: Overture Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage, Op. 27
31 - 34: Symphony No. 5, Op. 107 "The Reformation"
I. Andante - Allegro con fuoco
II. Allegro vivace
III. Andante
IV. Choral  "Ein' feste Burg ist unser Gott" (Andante con moto - Allegro vivace - Allegro maestoso)
35: The Hebrides, Op. 26 "Fingal's Cave"
36: Overture to "A Midsummer Night's Dream", Op. 21
37 - 47: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Incidental Music, Op. 61
"Ay Me! For Aught That I Could Ever Read"
No. 1, Scherzo
No. 2, L'istesso tempo
No. 2a, Allegro vivace
No. 3, Lied mit Chor
No. 4, Andante
No. 5, Allegro appassionato
No. 7, Nocturne. Con moto tranquillo
No. 8, Andante
No. 9, Hochzeitmarsch "Wedding March" - No. 12, Allegro vivace come primo
Finale. Allegro di molto

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