Search - Felix [1] Mendelssohn, James Levine, Florence Quivar :: Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 4 in A Major; A Midsummer Night's Dream, Incidental Music

Great musicianship at a very low price

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 11/09/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This CD contains Levine's 1985 reading of the Mendelssohn "Italian" Sym. with the Berlin Philharmonic, filled out by the standard suite of music from A Midsummer Night's Dream" (with some vocal additions for Judith Blegen, Florence Quivar, and chorus) with the Chicago Sym. from 1989. Both are exemplary recordings in excellent sound, with many touches of exceptional musicianship. Tempos ae fast, but Levine avoids the breathless rush that many condcutors favor in the finale of the symphony--he slows it down just enough to allow some warmth from the scurrying strings.



Levine has always been a great orchestral technician like his mentor, George Szell, but these readings aren't cold and rigid like Szell's. In fact, as acclaimed as Szell's "Italian" Sym. has been, I enjoyed Levine's similarly clean-cut, precise reading much more. Both orchestras really do play prodigiously, and if it weren't for a strange droopiness in the trio of the smphony's scherzo, this "Italian" would be my first choice. No argument about the Midsummer Night's Dream Over., though; Levine and the CSO work miracles of wit and delicacy. At the time these two orchestras belonged respectively to Karajan and Solti, but for a magical hour Levine makes them his own."