London Symphony Orchestra/Gardiner

Mendelssohn Symphonies One and Four

LSO Live

MENDELSSOHN’S First Symphony has never really made it into the repertoire. Nor has the Second Symphony, though there are more complex reasons for that. Perhaps, I have occasionally wondered, the First Symphony has just not been in the right hands. Well it is now, in this new and sparkling account of young Felix’s symphony by the LSO at its most immaculate with Sir John Eliot Gardiner, through his completely fresh view of the piece, pretty much re-inventing it.

He doesn’t even let the composer away with anything: Mendelssohn had written to his family, telling them how “boring” he found the third movement. So he cleverly adapted the Scherzo from his great Octet and used that instead. Gardiner incorporates it here, and the orchestration is dazzling. But Gardiner also includes the composer’s original version, and reveals a real beauty (to which Mendelssohn eventually returned). This is a glorious disc, along with a breathtakingly all’aperto performance of the Italian Symphony. It’s the best you will hear, with the LSO’s sunny playing at is most sophisticated, and Gardiner’s whirlwind drive in the finale almost taking the Saltarello into gravity-free territory with articulation that will have you gasping.

Michael Tumelty