Until the Nazis came to power, Felix Mendelssohn ranked among the great composers of western civilisation. His choral works ranked on a par with Bach and Handel, his symphonies on equal terms with Beethoven’s. Mendelssohn’s reputation was shattered by Hitler’s racial deprecation, never to recover. Post-War Austro-German conductors and audiences had learned to get along without his music. British and US audiences hardly missed him.
This seven-dosc compendium by the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, once headed by Mendelssohn himself, includes the five symphonies and the pair of oratorios, St Paul and Elijah. It lacks only Christus for comprehensiveness, which is no great loss given that it consists mostly of unrelated fragments. What we have here is pretty much all the Mendelssohn you will ever need, bar the violin concerto and the wedding march.
The Leipzig playing testifies to local pride and the phrasing by the Latvian music director Andris Nelsons is thoughtful and close to exemplary. Nelsons never lets Mendelssohn get bogged down in the glories of his imagination. He is a master of contrast who likes to push things along rather than underline weightier adumbrations.
The oratorios never pontificate and the symphonies are as light as any I have heard. The Italian Symphony and the Scottish in particular have the glitter of heather after a downpour. The opening of the Reformation Symphony anticipates the great adagios of Gustav Mahler. So much to relish and with so little maestro pretension. Nelsons is truly a devoted servant of this music in all its grandeur.
