Mendelssohn/Bizet/Smetana
Published:
COMPOSERS: Mendelssohn/Bizet/Smetana
LABELS: Sony Essential Classics
WORKS: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (excpts)
PERFORMER: Cleveland Orchestra/George Szell; National PO/Leopold Stokowski
CATALOGUE NO: SBK 48264 ADD (1963/67/78)
An early stereo classic, Szell’s Mendelssohn is about expansive descriptive detail and energising rhythmic adrenalin. You couldn’t ask for a more grandly elevated Wedding March, a fleeter Scherzo, a cooler Nocturne or a more poetically visionary Overture. Similarly, his big-sounding Smetana, disciplined yet supple, won’t disappoint. In the Bizet, Stokowski, belying his 95 (!) years, takes us on a journey of delight and wit, perennially vibrant. Ates Orga