Andris Nelsons’ tenure can secure been prematurely terminated in Boston, however this stunning field narrate with his other ensemble, the used Gewandhaus Orchestra, is proof sure of the Latvian conductor’s prodigious skills. After all, Mendelssohn is in the orchestra’s DNA – finally, the composer held the reins in Leipzig from 1835 until his loss of life in 1847 – however these performances, in particular of the five symphonies, are moderately particular.
Recorded are living between 2021 and 2024, tempi are brisk, despite the indisputable truth that by no methodology rushed. It’s the phrasing, elastic and complete of dynamic light and colour, that brings these accounts to life. Hear to the ultra-lithe opening trail of the Italian Symphony, or the filigree woodwind in the Scottish Symphony’s scherzo. In Nelsons’ arms, the First Symphony – on the complete the Cinderella of the narrate – takes its narrate alongside its more colourful cousins.
The seven-disc narrate comprises two oratorios, familiar on this nation in their Victorian English translation, however sung here in German. Elias (Elijah) aspects a famed lineup, including Golda Schultz, Werner Güra and Wiebke Lehmkuhl. Andrè Schuen sings the title role with a Lieder singer’s instinct for text in a performance that will per chance per chance stand comparison with Fischer-Dieskau. The MDR Radio Choir is a trifle polite in the Baal choruses, however the lads in explicit make a colossal noise.
Specifically welcome is Deutsche Grammophon’s first recording of Paulus (St Paul). Nelsons ferrets out the drama in Elias’s diffident relative, and if Georg Zeppenfeld is a exiguous bit grumbly because the pugnacious apostle, there’s a resplendent story of the soprano solos by Julia Kleiter.
Tear it on Apple Music (above) or on Spotify