Search - Mendelssohn, Masur, Lgo :: Early Symphonies 1

Mendelssohn was the most amazing child prodigy that ever lived. Most people think this was Mozart, but it isn't true if you consider not just quantity of music composed, but quality. The comparison ends there, however, because as Mozart got older, he got better. Mendelssohn got worse--or at best hit a plateau and more or less stayed there. These string symphonies, composed when he was 11, are not only delightful, they're better than a lot of stuff that came later. Though not at all well-known, they certainly deserve to be as popular as, say, Vivaldi's concertos or the heaps of early Mozart symphonies that you hear all the time of classical radio stations. These performances, from Mendelssohn's hometown team, are as good as we have any right to expect. There are four more discs in this series, and if you like these, you'll want the others as well. --David Hurwitz