Tasmania is unlikely to be the first place that those in the
market for a Mendelssohn symphony cycle turn their attentions.
However, this release is well worth their consideration. It doesn’t
have the polish of some of the central European competitors,
but the interpretations are lively and engaging, and for the
most part, the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra shows itself to be
well up to the challenges of this virtuoso repertoire.
Their secret weapon is an expert - admittedly a young one - imported
from the heartland of Mendelssohn interpretation, Sebastian Lang-Lessing.
The box set includes a bonus DVD with a documentary about the
recording project. It’s all a bit self-congratulatory,
but the interviews with Lang-Lessing are very revealing. He is
clearly a conductor with a strong vision of how Mendelssohn’s
music should sound, and when required he is fully able to justify
every interpretive decision. There is also footage of him conducting
the orchestra - the documentary is intercut with film of a performance
of the
Scottish - and he is the kind of conductor who
makes very broad, but flowing and continuous movements. Watching
him gives rise to a suspicion of control freakery, as if he is
unable to let go and allow the orchestra moments of repose, or
the woodwind soloists the space they need.
Thankfully, the recordings dispel any fears. They demonstrate
a strength of his hyperactive conducting technique in the sheer
energy he draws from the orchestra. The fast movements are, to
my ear, the most successful of these recordings - the outer movements
of the
Italian, for example, and the finale of the
Scottish.
Lang-Lessing sets fast tempi, and each of these movements opens
with an eruption of kinetic energy, which incredibly never seems
to dissipate.
The orchestral playing, on the whole, is very good, although
they do sometimes struggle to keep up with Lang-Lessing’s
pace. The second movement of the
Scottish, which admittedly
is fiendish, requiring fast, quiet and precise playing, sees
the woodwind and horns struggle to maintain the pace of the string
accompaniment. There are similar problems in the finale, although
here the strings are implicated too, their fast melodies, wide
intervals and regular dynamic changes all contributing to some
poor ensemble.
In general though, the orchestral playing is good. The TSO is
a chamber-sized orchestra, and I suspect that they have a great
deal of experience of the late classical repertoire, as they
are very good at bridging the gap between chamber and symphonic
playing. Their sound always has a warmth - listen, for example
to the Andante second movement of the First Symphony - but that
never compromises the identity of the instrumental colours. If
I were to be brutally honest, I would have to say that the strings
sound superior to the winds, and the biggest difference between
this recording and those by German orchestras is the lack of
character from the woodwind soloists, none of whom ever seem
able to stamp their individual identity onto the orchestral sound
in their respective solos. There’s nothing wrong with their
ensemble playing though; just listen to their reading of the
chorale
Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott in the finale of
the
Reformation: clean and precise, yet expressive and
warm - heavenly!
The Second Symphony,
Lobgesang is in many ways the odd
one out in the Mendelssohn canon. Its orchestration focuses more
heavily on the strings, and perhaps for this reason it is one
of the more successful of the cycle. I love the way the strings
articulate the phrasing in the third movement through controlled
yet emotive dynamic swells. The orchestra also drafts in a highly
competent trombone section, who also contribute a warmth to the
roundness of the string ensemble. We are quite a long way from
period performance here incidentally, but I doubt that will worry
many Mendelssohn fans.
Competent singing from choir and soloists in the second half
of the
Lobgesang. The vibrato of the soloists is a little
heavy for my taste, especially that of Sara Macliver, but it
isn’t out of keeping. The choir have a keen sense for the
drama of the music, and as with the orchestra, Lang-Lessing draws
a really energetic performance from them. Tuning is not flawless,
but is more than acceptable.
One of the interviews in the documentary is with a recording
engineer, who explains that most of the recording is from just
two microphones in front of the orchestra with ‘highlights’ from
closer mics when necessary. On the whole, this is a successful
approach and achieves both immediacy and clarity in the orchestral
sound. The choir are served less well, and there is a homogeneity
to their sound that I suspect is the result of distant micing.
All in all, this recording is a strong contender from an unusual
source. On the European market, it may have a tough time up against
some strong mid-price competition from the likes of Ashkenazy
and Abbado. The sound quality, at least for the orchestra, should
set it apart from those reissues, even if there are aspects of
the orchestral playing that let it down. But, as I say, the real
strength of these recordings is the sheer energy of the fast
movements. You’ll often hear performances of the
Scottish or
the
Italian that are reverential to a fault. Not so here,
Lang-Lessing knows where to find real excitement in these scores,
and more often than not the results are electric.
Gavin Dixon
Sara Macliver (soprano); Elena
Xanthoudakis (soprano); Jaewoo Kim (tenor) 
