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 year’s 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 Symphony Orchestra with their principal guest
conductor Edward Gardner, has begun a series of CDs dedicated to the
Symphonies of Mendelssohn. I understand that a disc of Nos. 1 and 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philosophical speculation about Catholic polyphony being ‘superseded’ by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
seems to suggest a certain ‘programmatic’ content reflecting the struggle
between the Catholics and the Lutherans. This is especially so in the
opening and closing movements 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. 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 struggled to complete it: he
wrote that he had ‘the bitterest moments I have ever endured or could have
imagined’ whilst writing this work. It 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
Hebrides is probably one of the best-known works in the entire
orchestral repertoire. The Overture was conceived shortly after visiting the
Hebrides with the composer’s 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.
John France
Masterwork Index:
Symphony 4 ~~
Symphony 5
