After two releases of Bruckner symphonies, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and chief conductor Lahav Shani present a new recording of Mendelssohn’s most famous symphony. The “Scottish” is paired with the concert overture Meeresstille und glückliche Fahrt and three orchestrations of piano pieces from the Lieder ohne Worte.
The opening of the first movement is autumnally colored, with winds and divided violas well-balanced. Compared with the sweep and flexibility Blomstedt obtains in San Francisco, the violin recitative is a bit stilted, but the build up to the first climax (tack 1, 2’06”) is faultlessly judged. The Allegro un poco agitato is slower than I like, but it never feels too slow because the performance reveals so much inner detail, every line carefully considered and shaped. The Development’s agitated counterpoint has notable transparency, and if the storm music (14’10”) lacks the ferocity of Järvi’s recent Tonhalle account, it nevertheless has weight and brawn.
The Vivace non troppo, while not as ‘light on its feet’ as readings by Manacorda (Sony) and Järvi, offers oodles of character, especially from the winds. The Adagio is again slower than I prefer, but the Rotterdam players phrases with full throated lyricism, building to an impassioned central climax (4’30”). Throughout the movement they communicate a deeply felt sense of melancholy and grief. The last movement, slower than any performance referenced above, never bogs down. Mendelssohn’s original tempo indication was “Allegro geurriero” (war-like, later changed to the less programmatic “Allegro vivacissimo”) and successful readings must embrace the music’s thorny, violent roughness. Shani does so, not through speed, but through articulation and weighty sound. The Coda is stately and noble, horns encouraged to ring out.
I referenced the slower tempos more than once because I see this as a young man’s music. Written when Mendelssohn was only 20 years old and inspired by his walking tour of Scotland, the tempo indications (as well as descriptions of his conducting and his own preference for faster speeds) suggest greater urgency than Shani offers. Yet I came away from my listening with a distinct image of Mendelssohn living a longer life and returning to Scotland to revisit the locales he had seen as a youth. This time, he does not rush to cover as much ground each day; he allows himself time to more fully experience everything. This is not, as far as I know, Shani’s interpretive reasoning, but rather how this performance makes sense to me, and why it proved so engaging.
I am less convinced by Shani’s Meeresstille und glückliche Fahrt (Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage) Overture, in which Mendelssohn strives to orchestrally depict the same two Goethe poems memorably set by Beethoven in 1814-15. Mendelssohn’s friend suggested the orchestra would do a better job of representing the calm sea, and that his German audiences, knowing the poems so well, would have no need of a sung text. I am afraid I cannot agree and find this version far less compelling than Beethoven’s. Moreover, both Dohnanyi (Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra/Decca) and Gardner offer more exciting renditions.
Lahav Shani (image: ©️ Marco Borggreve)
The final tracks are Shani’s orchestrations of three popular songs from Mendelssohn’s “Lieder Ohne Worte”: Lost Happiness (Book 3), Venetian Gondola Song (Book 1), and Spinning Song (Book 4). They are effectively scored and charmingly dispatched by the Rotterdam players. While I am sure they are lovely encores, I prefer them in their original guise.
While this new recording does not displace any of the prime recommendations listen in our full guide to this symphony , the beautiful playing of the Rotterdam orchestra and Shani’s thought-provoking interpretation convince on their own terms. Especially for listeners weary of historically informed performances of Romantic symphonies, this performance should prove enjoyable and emotionally satisfying.
Recommended Comparisons
Gardner | Maag | Dohnányi | Manacorda | Karajan | Blomstedt
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Album Details |
|
|---|---|
| Album name | Mendelssohn – Symphony No. 3 (“Scottish”) |
| Label | Warner Classics |
| Catalogue No. | 2173272325 |
| Artists | Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Lahav Shani |
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