Search - Felix Mendelssohn, George Szell, Sir Andrew Davis :: Mendelssohn: Symphonies Nos. 3 & 4; Hebrides Overture

Italian with lots of spice, Scotch with too much ice

HB | Fort Mill, SC | 01/29/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The Szell Mendelssohn is a recording I first heard in the late '60s via LP. I then bought the cassette and later the CD version. One hundred years from now, the Italian should be of legendary status. The orchestral playing is simply astonishing. I have heard it at least 100 times and still cannot believe that any orchestra could play with that kind of precision. The slow movement is a little too fast for my taste but the rest of the performance is magnificent. A must CD for any classical collection. The Hebrides is also close to perfection. Unfortunately, Sony decided to include a rather tepid performance of the Scotch symphony. It is very cold and boring. Andrew Davis and George Szell are simply not in same league and should not be on the same CD. When Sony was Columbia Masterworks, its 4 main conductors were Bruno Walter, Leonard Bernstein, Eugene Ormandy and of course Szell. Andrew Davis does not fit in with that group at all."

Szell's Italian is top notch.

DWPC | Ventura, CA United States | 08/15/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"These three works exhibit Mendelssohn's superb orchestration skill. The "Italian" by Szell is marvelous and alone justifies buying the disk. The Hebrides Overture, too, is done wonderfully and shouldn't be overlooked. The "Scottish" by Davis is very enjoyable but not in the same league. The recording quality of the Szell portions done in 1960 are very warm and vinyl-like overall. The others seem over-engineered."