Recordings of Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64, are abundant, and even the pairing with the rarer Robert Schumann Violin Concerto, WoO 23, of 1853 are not as infrequent as they used to be. The thorny Schumann concerto has undergone a reevaluation upward, and plenty of players now concur with the judgment of Yehudi Menuhin: "This concerto is the historically missing link of the violin literature; it is the bridge between the Beethoven and the Brahms concertos, though leaning more towards Brahms." Violinist Carolin Widmann who (like the ECM label on which the album appears) has focused mostly on contemporary music, takes up the challenge of providing something new here, and she meets it. The central fact of the recording is that Widmann conducts the Chamber Orchestra of Europe from the violin. Others have done this before, but few have pursued the implications of the technique as far as Widmann has: the performances are unusually light and transparent, and they are perhaps thus in accord with the sounds an orchestra of the middle 19th century might have produced. Sample the unusually lively, sprightly reading of the Mendelssohn concerto's finale.

German-Canadian cellist Johannes Moser and Scottish pianist Alasdair Beatson present a moving portrait of the Mendelssohn family with this recording of pieces by the siblings Felix and Fanny. Once composed for the popular Sunday Sessions at the Berlin Mendelssohn family house, these works fit into the typically nineteenth-century tradition of domestic music-making, albeit at the highest thinkable level. Beatson plays an 1837 Érard fortepiano, identical to the instrument that belonged to the Mendelssohn household when these pieces were composed. Besides Felix Mendelssohn’s two sonatas for cello and piano, his Variations concertantes, op. 17, Lied ohne Worte, op. 109 and Albumblatt in B Minor are featured. Fanny Hensel-Mendelssohn’s Fantasia in G Minor and Capriccio in A-flat Major show what could have become of this talented female composer if societal conventions had not restricted her musical activities to the private salon.

Following an exceptional critical reception of their first volume of Mendelssohn Quartets, the Doric String Quartet now completes the project. As in the case of the previous volume, the players juxtapose one of the early quartets (No. 2) with two of the later compositions (Nos 3 and 4), composed a decade or so later. Composed in 1827, the Second Quartet pays homage to Beethoven’s outstanding contribution to the genre (Beethoven died in March of that year), but this is no simple pastiche. It is a confident work, Mendelssohn’s individual voice already clearly present. The later quartets are perhaps less overtly revolutionary – Mendelssohn was now an established figure and a recipient of Royal commissions – but nevertheless remain clear milestones in the development of the genre.

Pierre Fournier was born in Paris on 24 June in 1906 the son of a French army general. He was known for his lyrical playing and his impeccable artistic sensitivity and this, during his lifetime, earned him the title 'the aristocrat of cellists'.
Fournier was first taught piano by his mother but at the age of nine he suffered a mild case of polio and lost some of the agility in his legs and feet. He was no longer able to master the use of the piano pedals and so turned to the cello.

In a follow-up to her acclaimed album of Mahler songs, Christiane Karg takes us on a Christmas tour, in the select company of fellow music-makers. Revisiting holiday memories through the eyes of a child, but with the benefit of her superb artistry as a lieder specialist, the German soprano shines a light on some enchanting rarities of German and French repertoire, along with examples of Spanish, Basque, and Scandinavian traditions… A treasure trove of hidden gems!

Trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth's album of Magical Memories was recorded during the coronavirus pandemic and intended as a positive statement, suggesting childhood memories that bring strength at a difficult time. The memories are Helseth's own; she heard her mother play the trumpet with an organist in church and loved the combination. It's a simple and direct concept, but it conceals several challenges that Helseth has successfully surmounted on this lovely release. First of all, in Helseth's own words, "There is nothing as difficult to play as a really simple melody – a simple, unadorned, honest melody coming from within. It's magic!" She offers traditional Norwegian folk melodies and classical favorites, and she's right; to make these more than ordinary is difficult, but she pulls it off with really charismatic performances of the likes of "Solveig's Lullaby" from Grieg's Peer Gynt.

Lang Lang's debut recording for Deutsche Grammophon showcased the young pianist's extraordinary gifts in celebrated recordings of Tchaikovsky's and Mendelssohn's First Piano Concertos. Mentor Daniel Barenboim led the forces of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Gathered here, the three discs with Felix Mendelssohn’s symphonies recorded in 2007 and 2008 by Andrew Litton and his Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra were warmly received by the reviewers when they were first released.

Felix Mendelssohn was only nineteen years old when little sister Fanny noted in her diary: 'My birthday party was fun… Felix gave me a' song without words' for my album; he would later write more of those fine pieces. ' In total it became eight albums, each with six Lieder ohne Worte. Someone once compared them to wild flowers, with Chopin's Nocturnes being compared to orchids. And of course those so-called orchids are by far the best represented in the catalogs and discographies. Fortunately there has been at least one great pianist who has still looked back to the Lieder ohne Worte. This 1974 set of Mendelssohn's complete Songs without Words, which Barenboim plays with such affectionate finesse, has dominated the catalog for nearly two decades, according to The Penguin Guide.

Bringing his acclaimed Mendelssohn cycle to a rousing conclusion, Sir John Eliot Gardiner presents the composer s symphony-cantata, Lobgesang. Mendelssohn wrote that the piece lies very near my heart , and with its stately grandeur and religiosity, plus its sheer magnitude double the length of any of his other symphonies it stands amongst his most impressive works. Posthumously categorised by editors as the composer s second symphony, it is also known as a song of praise and three talented soloists join the LSO and the world-class Monteverdi Choir for this recording. While Gardiner is well-versed in the German s output, this release documents his first performance of the work. In an interview for The Arts Desk, he said: It s a piece I ve been looking at for years, and I ve never conducted it.

Mendelssohn's concertos are often denigrated as unworthy of serious consideration compared to the major warhorse concertos of the 19th Century. While they certainly don't compare favorably to, say, the Beethoven concertos, they were never meant to. Mendelssohn wrote them as a young man to demonstrate his clearly remarkable musical talents as composer and pianist in public performance. And they made quite a splash indeed. They literally bubble over with youth, enthusiasm, delight, virtuosity and bravado. They tell me more about the young Mendelssohn than any dry biography could.

Die Zusammenarbeit zwischen Sergiu Celibidache und den Berliner Philharmonikern begann am 29. August 1945, im einem der tragischsten Momente der Orchestergeschichte. Das angestammte Haus, der Konzertsaal in der Bernburger Straße, lag zerbombt in Schutt und Asche, Chefdirigent Wilhelm Furtwängler durfte, auf sein Entnazifizierungsverfahren wartend, nicht dirigieren und Interimsdirigent Leo Borchard war wenige Tage zuvor versehentlich von einem amerikanischen Wachposten erschossen worden. Das verwaiste Orchester suchte händeringend nach einem Leiter, der die bereits geplanten Konzerte übernehmen konnte. Von den großen Dirigenten stand keiner zur Verfügung und so erhielt ein junger, unbekannter Hochschulabsolvent, der gerade den Dirigentenwettbewerb des Rundfunkorchesters gewonnen hatte, seine große Chance: Sergiu Celibidache. Der damals 33-jährige Rumäne, Schüler von Heinz Tiessen und Walter Gmeindl sowie ein großer Bewunderer Furtwänglers, besaß wenig Erfahrung, aber Talent, Ehrgeiz und Charisma.