Michael Hofstetter - Mendelssohn: The Complete String Symphonies (2010) [3CD]

The late Hans Keller, shrewdest and most controversial commentator on music, used always to say that the composer who wrote more masterpieces in his early teens was not Mozart but Mendelssohn. This complete collection of the string symphonies which Mendelssohn wrote as a boy – the first six before he was even a teenager – go a long way towards sustaining that suggestion.

The writing by this genius of a boy is astonishingly confident, masterly in its control of counterpoint and in the lightness with which he wrote for his instruments, often pointing forwards to the mature Mendelssohn. He wrote these works for the concerts held for his private pleasure by Abraham, the son of Moses Mendelssohn, the most distinguished Jewish theologian of his day. Abraham, the most successful banker in Berlin, used to say that when he was young he was described as the “son of his father”, and when he was old he was the “father of his son”.

Until the arrival of CD these works were referred to in the textbooks but were unknown on records. In fact for many years the scores had been lost. Yet now there are several complete sets to rival this new issue, notably one from the Amsterdam Chamber Orchestra (BIS) and one with the Northern Chamber Orchestra conducted by Nicholas Ward (Naxos, 12/96, A/97). Broadly speaking the new set offers performances a degree more refined and polished, helped by recording with the widest dynamic range, down to the most delicate pianissimos.

The refined quality of the sound enhances the “fairy music” quality of some of the writing, which clearly anticipates the Mendelssohn that emerged in his Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture, a work also of his teenage years. One regularly marvels even in the earliest symphonies here at the way the boy, under the care of his teacher, Carl Zelter, had taken account of his great predecessors, not just Mozart and Haydn but Beethoven too. The Naxos version offers beefier sound and performances not quite so polished as those of the Stuttgart players but always lively, which plainly suits the more robust ideas drawn from the influence of Beethoven, often in sharply dramatic syncopated writing.

What is perhaps surprising is that the boy uses melodies that might be thought exotic, notably from Swiss sources. He visited Switzerland at least four times in those years and loved the atmosphere of the country. Most of the works are in a conventional three movements but some have only two, and the last, No 13, is cut off after the first movement, with the boy presumably intending to add more. Summing up, I would say that though the three Naxos discs offer playing by the Northern Chamber Orchestra that is always enjoyable, more so than the Amsterdam version on BIS, this new one is on balance the finest yet.

Tracks:

Symphony for Strings no 1 in C major
Symphony for Strings no 2 in D major
Symphony for Strings no 3 in E minor
Symphony for Strings no 4 in C minor
Symphony for Strings no 5 in B flat major
Symphony for Strings no 6 in E flat major
Symphony for Strings no 7 in D minor
Symphony for Strings no 8 in D major
Symphony for Strings no 9 in C major
Symphony for Strings no 10 in B minor
Symphony for Strings no 11 in F major
Symphony for Strings no 12 in G minor
Symphony for Strings no 13 in C minor "Symphoniesatz"

Personnel:

Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra
Michael Hofstetter