FELIX MENDELSSOHN (1809-1847)

Symphony No 4 in A major, Op. 90, Italian
01 Allegro vivace
02 Andante con moto
03 Con moto moderato
04 Saltarello (Presto)

Symphony No 3 in A minor, Op. 56, Scottish
05 Andante con moto - Allegro un poco agitato - Assai animato - Andante con prima
06 Vivace non troppo
07 Adagio
08 Allegro vivacissimo - Allegro maestoso assai

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685-1750)

Cantata BWV 107, Was willst du dich betrüben
09 Chorale: Herr, gib, dass ich dein’ Ehre (transcr. for orchestra)

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About this CD

Witnessing Frans Brüggen in any form of music-making is always a pleasant and satisfying experience (the pleasure is doubly so this month with Glossa re-issuing the 1993 Sour Cream sessions featuring Brüggen as recorder player), so the opportunity to hear his interpretations of Mendelssohn’s Italian and Scottish Symphonies with his Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century as part of The Grand Tour series is indeed an enticing one. Conductor and orchestra are both strongly in harmony with the evolving nature of the Romantic spirit of the 19th century; recent Glossa releases from them have included the much-praised Beethoven Symphonies and the Chopin Piano Concertos sets.

Here, Felix Mendelssohn is a composer who has long fascinated Brüggen – Glossa’s Cabinet series contains his 1997 recording of A Midsummer Night’s Dream – and on the new recording the legendary conductor marvellously captures the emotional torrents experienced by Mendelssohn when reflecting on his own Grand Tour, which took in both the blazing sun of Rome and also the mists of the Scottish Highlands. Opting to perform the original 1833 version of the Italian Symphony (as at its first performance in London), Brüggen sets out to paint a stronger contrast with the later completed Symphony No 3, brilliantly reflecting the composer’s wildly fluctuating moods at the time; a view of Mendelssohn elegantly covered by Roeland Hazendonk in his accompanying essay.

These new readings from Frans Brüggen – taken, as ever, from live performances following on from the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century’s concert tours; here from Utrecht in The Netherlands – are rounded off with a moving orchestral transcription of music by a composer close to Brüggen’s heart as it was to Mendelssohn’s: the closing chorale of Bach’s Cantata No 107, Was willst du dich betrüben.