MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2023
Approaching 60,000 reviews
and more.. and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             

CD REVIEW



Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

 

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

 


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews

 


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

alternatively AmazonUK   AmazonUS

 

 

Felix MENDELSSOHN (1809-1847)
Symphony No. 3 in A minor Scottish Op.44 [34:17]
Symphony No. 5 in D minor Reformation Op. 107 [30:42]
François COUPERIN (1668-1733)
Overture and Allegro from the sonata “La Sultane” (transcription by Darius Milhaud)  [7:49]
Kölner Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester/Dmitri Mitropoulos
rec. Funkhaus, Saal 1, WDR Cologne, 24 October 1960 (Scottish Symphony), 19 July 1957 (Reformation Symphony), 16 July 1954
MEDICI MASTERS MM014-2 [74:21]

 


By the late 1950s the once-illustrious career of Dmitri Mitropoulos at the helm of the New York Philharmonic had run into trouble. The conductor’s own essentially gentle, non-combative attitude to music-making did not earn him the respect of the hard-bitten NYPO musicians of the time. He was neither an orchestral trainer nor a martinet of the podium ŕ la Szell. His dedication to contemporary music and his unconventional approach to programme-building was not reflected in support from the notoriously conventional Carnegie Hall audiences.  He was the subject of regular and frequently personal attacks in the New York press. As Mitropoulos’s star waned, that of his erstwhile protégé Leonard Bernstein was in the ascendant, providing New York audiences with the glamour and glitz which were absent from the Greek conductor’s make-up.  Small wonder that Mitropoulos, his health seriously affected by the stresses of the last few years, looked to Europe to continue the music-making that was so important to him. 

A series of memorable performances in Salzburg, Vienna and elsewhere consolidated his reputation on that side of the Atlantic. The current disc brings together three separate studio performances with the Kölner Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester from this period.

Mitropoulos had performed and recorded these Mendelssohn Symphonies in 1953 in New York, but these German recordings are better in terms of both sound and performance.  The Scottish Symphony recording dates from 24 October 1960, just a week before Mitropoulos memorable performance of Mahler’s Third Symphony with the same forces, and ten days before his death while rehearsing the same work in Milan. The opening movement is energetic, with imposingly dramatic playing and dynamic contrasts. The Vivace non troppo is a delight, performed faster than is customary, creating a riot of sound and colour. The Adagio is marked by heartfelt cantabile playing from the whole orchestra, followed by a suitably energetic finale.

The Reformation Symphony dates from a 1957 concert and shares the virtues of energy and commitment that distinguished the Scottish. The transition in the finale from the simplicity of the chorale melody on flute to the jubilant allegro vivace is extremely well handled, and the music’s many contrapuntal strands are effectively highlighted. Mitropoulos brings the symphony to a suitably affirmative close.

The Couperin transcription by Darius Milhaud provides a good example of the breadth of Mitropoulos’s repertoire. In the same 1954 concert he conducted Schoenberg’s Violin Concerto with Louis Krasner as soloist. The music sounds not dissimilar to the contemporary arrangements of Bach by Stokowski, Ormandy and others in its unashamed use of full orchestral forces. The opening minuet is treated to lush phrasing before a more energetic march-like allegro. This rounds off this valuable disc in fine style.

In all these pieces Mitropoulos is skilled in balancing the structural aspects of the music with its dramatic, expressive side. All provide further evidence, if any were needed, of this great conductor’s total absorption in music-making, and fully justify the high reputation he enjoys today.

Ewan McCormick

 

 


Gerard Hoffnung CDs

Advertising on
Musicweb



Donate and get a free CD

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical


Nimbus Podcast


Obtain 10% discount


Special offer 50% off

Musicweb sells the following labels
Acte Préalable
(THE Polish label)
Altus 10% off
Atoll 10% off
CRD 10% off
Hallé 10% off
Lyrita 10% off
Nimbus 10% off
Nimbus Alliance
Prima voce 10% off
Red Priest 10% off
Retrospective 10% off
Saydisc 10% off
Sterling 10% off


Follow us on Twitter

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing
sample

Sample: See what you will get

Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Senior Editor
John Quinn
Seen & Heard
Editor Emeritus
   Bill Kenny
Editor in Chief
   Vacant
MusicWeb Webmaster
   David Barker
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

 

Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.