Mendelssohn

Piano Concerto No. 2; Symphony No. 1 Kristian Bezuidenhout (fortepiano); Freiburger Barockorchester/ Pablo Heras-casado Harmonia Mundi HMM 902369 63:01 mins Mendelssohn hasn’t become a Baroque composer all of a sudden, but you might think his Symphony No. 1, written in his teens, could benefit from a slimmeddown approach rather than heavy-handed ultra-romanticism, and you wouldn’t be wrong. One

can’t fault the actual playing of the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, which is all virtuoso clarity, often at dizzying tempos, capturing the frenetic aspect of the composer’s irrepressible energy. Nevertheless, some of the recording’s finest moments occur conversely in The Fair Melusine (last on the disc), in the expressive woodwind solos and dark, mysterious atmospheres, for which plaudits to Heras-casado and orchestra both.

The Symphony, though, is problematic. It’s wonderful to be historically informed, but not to sound terminally insensitive. Perhaps Heras-casado and the orchestra are trying too hard to ‘project’, but the result mostly feels driven, aggressive, even angry. There’s little room to breathe or to vary the articulation on repeated figures. This impression is not aided by a balance in which the pencilslender string tone is frequently swamped by the brass and timpani.

Kristian Bezuidenhout’s playing in the concerto, however, is a total joy, with ample nuance, expressivity and airiness, besides that delicate and even touch in Mendelssohn’s figurations with their showers of glitter. The fortepiano is an Erard of 1837, the year of the work’s world premiere in Birmingham. The elegance and charm of pianist and instrument rather show up the orchestral approach, some of which left me feeling I’d been hit on the head repeatedly with a fish slice. Jessica Duchen

PERFORMANCE ★★★★

RECORDING ★★★