Arnold Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 2 and Violin Concerto

[Tapiola]

Available from January 22nd on:

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9837471--arnold-mendelssohn-symphony-no-2-violin-concerto

Yet another intriguing release from CPO. I remember one of his string quartets not being very interesting, so hoping these works will be more satisfactory.

[terry martyn]

I've listened to the excerpts three times, and it's another couple of works about which I am in two minds . Not because they are heavy - on this evidence,far from it. But I would have to listen to the whole of them before I began to think that they were up to snuff.

[eschiss1]

I'm looking forward to it, anyway. Thanks!

[Ilja]

Oh, this all sounds quite delicious. Totally antiquated for 1922 of course (or even for 1902, for that matter) but well-constructed and tuneful. But that is perhaps not so strange if one realises how much his production shot up after the age of 45 (according to his Wikipedia page). Until then there are 14 opus numbers, followed by well over a hundred works after. He was nearing seventy when writing the two works in this recording.

[eschiss1]

I'm going to take a wild guess that his output before 1901 was actually pretty sizeable too, but w/o Opus. Worldcat seems to support me in this guess.

Published by him between 1889 and 1900 included:
Zwei Gedichte f. 1 tiefe St. m. Pfte. (Cohen, 1889);
Der Hagestolz. Neckreigen f. gem. Chor u. Orch. (Schott, 1890);
Fünf Lieder nach Shakespeare f. 1 Singst. m. Pfte. (Schott, 1892);
Zur Maienzeit: ,,Ein Liebster und sein Mädel schön" f. 1 Singst. m. Pfte. (Darmstadt: Thies, 1895);
"Abendcantate nach Worten der heiligen Schrift f. achtstimm. gem. Chor, Soli u. Org." (Bote&Bock, 1896);
Elsi, die seltsame Magd. Oper. (with Hermann Wette) (Köln: Alb. Ahn, 1896- ok, Op.8 per Wikipedia and SBB - which has digitized the full score);
Lieder u. Gesänge f. 1 Singst. m. Pfte. (Ries & Erler, 1898);
Zwei Gedichte f. 1 tiefe Singst. m. Pfte. (Wernthal, 1899);
Der Bärenhäuter. Oper. (Ahn, 1899) (Op.11 according to Wikipedia)
3 Lieder f. 1 Singst. m. Pfte. (Fürstner, 1900);
Das Leiden des Herrn: ,,Da Krist der Herr in den Garten ging". Nach einem altdeutschen Volkslied f. vierstimm. gem. Chor, Soli (ad lib.), Org. u. kl. Orch. (Rieter-Biedermann, 1900) (Ok, Op.13 according to Wikipedia and SBB, fair enough)
Sechs vierstimm. Chorsätze f. S., A., T. u. B. (Rieter-Biedermann, 1900)
,,Büble, wir wollen ausse gehe". Volkslied f. gem. Chor m. Pfte. (Hug, 1900)
Auferstehung: ,,Es gingen drei Fräulein also fruh". Ein altdeutsches Volkslied f. A.-Solo, gem. Chor, kl. Orch. u. Org. (Ries & Erler, 1900)
I see some of these are mentioned at Wikipedia and IMSLP, but only some. And SBB probably has more of his works in their catalog that were composed or published before 1901... not necessarily hugely many, but more than the opus number listing suggests, I'd say.

[Ilja]

Eric, thanks for delving a bit deeper. And of course, it's always possible that later opus numbers reflect works that were conceived much earlier.

[Droosbury]

CPO released a recording of his String Quartets 2 & 3 back in 2013 (no longer available, but is here on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0uGb8i4hyc&list=OLAK5uy_lI5NvxrHeQ2eIktehnx-ga9Fvn-exTnaw&index=2).

Conservative stuff (esp considering their date - 1915 and 1918, I think), not too far from that of his famous forebear, but a pleasant listen.

[eschiss1]

As to the two works on this disc, are there dates attached to them, etc. (I was going to say keys but I see Presto gives that...)? I seem to have gotten briefly confused between this and another disc with a Symphony and Violin Concerto (Koessler's ) released by cpo but that happens to me in my mid-50s. I will not be upset to hear both, I expect, and thanks to cpo and both groups of performers for bringing them to light. I'm guessing these works, unlike the Koessler passacaglia-concerto e.g., are unpublished, but on the flipside that will mean no spoilers in advance, so to speak.

I'm not sure I was aware Arnold L. Mendelssohn even wrote symphonies, unlike Felix and Alfred (Mendelsohn-one-s, who composed at least 8 most or all of which are almost certainly outside our orbit, but one of which seemed quite pleasant to me when I heard it in an Enescu Festival recording some time back.) Does anyone know how many, counting published and unpublished?

[eschiss1]

Re Arnold M's 2nd symphony:
Arnold Mendelssohn's 2nd symphony: Problems and Solutions of the Edition unfortunately is only an announcement of a lecture from January of last year in Hamburg, but mentions that the work was only premiered finally in 2004 in Russia - it seems after the speaker put together the edition about which he spoke. The violin concerto was published, in reduction anyway, in 1923 so is in the public domain in that form in the US...

IMSLP lists a symphony no.3 Op.95, I see.

[eschiss1]

Also, only 2 string quartets seem to have turned up afaik despite cpo's numbering them as nos. 2 and 3, does anyone have information that could clarify the possibly missing "no.1"?

[Ilja]

This one has now been released, and I downloaded it yesterday. To be honest, not having heard anything by this composer I had no expectation at all. I've only heard the symphony sofar, and it's an interesting beast. The booklet emphasizes the Brucknerian influence, but I'm hearing something quite close to Felix Woyrsch's symphonies: a fundamentally Brahmsian idiom condensed into more compact forms. Melodically, we also get some Beethoven and Schumann, and the work starts in the same way as Dukas' C major symphony (a coincidence, perhaps?).

Is this a dry, lazily derivative symphony, then? No, quite the opposite: I found it immensely entertaining because Mendelssohn knows how to merge those influences into a vibrant, energetic, and yes, original work. Despite being melodically and harmonically conservative, Mendelssohn treats his material freely and with great variation: the slow movement is not really slow, in contrast to the middle section of the scherzo, which is more andante than the andante itself. Here and there we find abrupt transitions to new thematic sections (but I wouldn't call them Brucknerian), and development tends to be fairly brief (bordering on hectic, at times). Overall, the whole thing turned out to be a very pleasant surprise.

[Mark Thomas]

That's a mouth-watering review, Ilja, and a welcome surprise. I'll look forward to hearing it when I finally get home.

[Tapiola]

Sounds like a must-hear then. Thank you, Ilja. Do you have any thoughts on his Violin Concerto?

[Ilja]

To be honest, I'm a always bit hesitant to review violin concertos, since I'm not the biggest conoisseur (or fan) of the genre and feel I lack the required frame of reference. What I can say is that it feels just a tad more modern than the symphony, and that the first movement is perhaps a bit too long to sustain the interest of a non-conoisseur like myself. It's certainly played very well by both Ms. Ziling Guo and the orchestra.

[Tapiola]

Just listened to both works and... my first impressions are not properly positive. Whilst well-written, pleasant and bouncy, it's too generic for the most part. Some good themes or melodies on both pieces were largely missed. I wonder how CPO chooses the repertoire to be recorded, because these works deserve oblivion from my personal perspective, honestly. Sorry if I'm harsh.