COMPOSERS: Mendelssohn
LABELS: Decca Double Decca
WORKS: Piano Concerto No. 1; Piano Concerto No. 2; Piano Concerto in A minor; Concerto in E for Two Pianos; Capriccio brillant in B minor; Rondo brillant in E flat; Rondo capriccioso in E
PERFORMER: Peter Katin, John Ogdon, Brenda Lucas, Jorge Bolet (piano); LSO/Anthony Collins, LPO/Jean Martinon, Academy of St Martin in the Fields/Neville Marriner
CATALOGUE NO: 452 410-2 ADD/DDD mono/stereo (1954-87)
Not quite all of Mendelssohn’s inventive output for piano and orchestra, but a sizeable representation even so, spanning a period from 1822 to 1837. Such music, full of Classical sensibility and early Romantic imagination, finds Katin and Ogdon in limpid form, equally responsive to the Mozartian/Hummelian dimensions of Mendelssohn’s alternately bustling, thoughtful keyboard style. Detailed orchestral support, too. But the variable sound, from analogue mono to digital stereo, needs getting used to. Katin’s shallow, muffled piano imaging was unflattering even in the Fifties, and it has not transferred well in remastering. Ates Orga
Mendelssohn: Piano Concerto No. 1; Piano Concerto No. 2; Piano Concerto in A minor; Concerto in E for Two Pianos; Capriccio brillant in B minor; Rondo brillant in E flat; Rondo capriccioso in E
Not quite all of Mendelssohn’s inventive output for piano and orchestra, but a sizeable representation even so, spanning a period from 1822 to 1837. Such music, full of Classical sensibility and early Romantic imagination, finds Katin and Ogdon in limpid form, equally responsive to the Mozartian/Hummelian dimensions of Mendelssohn’s alternately bustling, thoughtful keyboard style. Detailed orchestral support, too. But the variable sound, from analogue mono to digital stereo, needs getting used to.
Our rating
4
Published: January 20, 2012 at 3:10 pm