Felix MENDELSSOHN (1809-1847)
Piano Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 25 (1830) [18:13]*
Piano Concerto No. 2 in D minor, Op. 40 (1837) [20:43]*
Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op. 107 (Reformation) (1828-30) [25:10]
Québec Symphony Orchestra/Louis Lortie *(piano)
rec. Salle Raoul-Jobin, Palais Montcalm, Québec, April 2009
ATMA CLASSIQUE ACD2 2617 [64:14] 
A number of pianists over the years - Daniel Barenboim, Vladimir Ashkenazy,
Murray Perahia - have made a specialty of directing Mozart piano concertos
from the keyboard. This procedure ensures a unified interpretation, and the
music's clean, straightforward lines permit a competent orchestra to keep
itself more or less together while the pianist is otherwise occupied. What
arm-waving the soloist can manage during the ritornellos probably won't hurt
anything, at least. In the cases of Ashkenazy and Barenboim, at least, such
performances helped to launch full-fledged conducting careers.
Applying the same practice to later repertoire, however, is questionable.
The rigorously structured Beethoven concertos have proved more or less amenable
to such treatment, but in the more intricate textures of early Romantic scores
- which don't necessarily sound more complex than Beethoven's - it
really helps to have a separate conductor. A pianist-director whose attention
is necessarily divided must largely leave the orchestra to tend to its own
deportment, relying on the players' expertise and goodwill.
Thus, Louis Lortie's go at the Mendelssohn concertos is a mixed success. The
earlier G minor concerto comes off well. The outer movements are labeled Molto
allegro con fuoco and Presto respectively, and feature numerous
driving, tremolando string phrases, all of which suggests a drama that
doesn't always come across in performance. The stereotype of Mendelssohn as
a lightweight still flourishes in some quarters. Lortie infuses those movements
with a Schumannesque nervous tension, contrasting it with a calm, spacious
account of the central Andante movement. As pianist, Lortie's touch
is light enough to allow for deft articulation in the passagework, but maintains
a sense of weight in reserve for the climaxes, avoiding shallow tone. His
voicings in the Andante could be more ambitious - the chording is homogenized
- but he guides the phrases musically and sensitively.
The D minor performance is more equivocal: it follows the same broad outlines
as its companion, but there are bits that needed more rehearsal, or a separate
conductor. The orchestra bangs into the first movement's first tutti
with more enthusiasm than precision, and the chords near the end of the piece
don't quite land with the impulsive pianist. Lortie adopts a simple, singing
manner for the central Adagio, but the grandly expansive climax doesn't
fill out as one wants - it feels held back, as if the director were embarrassed
by its scale.
Lortie takes over the baton exclusively for the Reformation Symphony.
He has a good feel for the score - his reading would go over well in concert
- and occasionally evinces an ear for detail: the bass note connecting the
third and fourth movements is clearly present, for example, avoiding the usual
brief lapse in continuity. Lortie's flowing, cantabile phrasing evokes
the right meditative spirit, while his forthright, no-nonsense rhythmic address
avoids the whiff of sanctimony that can hover about the score, particularly
in the finale with its quotations of the Lutheran chorale Ein' feste Burg.
At first, the main section of that movement, beginning at 1:14, sounds hasty,
but it settles nicely by the time the chorale resumes at 3:58. Elsewhere,
passing ensemble flaws - a nervousness about the tremolo phrases in the first
movement, some miscoordination in the pulsing bits of the scherzo - are a
distraction.
Overall, the Québec Symphony plays well, far better than on the only other
recording of theirs I've heard, a dismal ballet program under Simon Streatfield
(CBC). The sonority is full, though it's not a high-octane Philadelphia or
Boston sound, and the solo and sectional work is consistently polished.
This is a pleasing and well-performed program, but you could probably do better
getting the concertos and the symphony separately. Unfashionably, I've always
favored John Ogdon's full-bodied, somewhat over-recorded coupling of the concertos
(originally EMI Studio Two, licensed Stateside to the Klavier label); its
closest digital counterpart would probably be Stephen Hough's bold, stylish
Hyperion accounts. For the Reformation, pre-digital transfers by Maazel
(DG), Bernstein (Sony), and von Dohnányi (Decca) still take pride of place,
along with the excitable, and exciting, Munch account (RCA), though its early
stereo recording sounds faded now.
Stephen Francis Vasta
This is a pleasing and well-performed programme.