Mendelssohn - Symphony 4 'Italian' [Belohlavek-Prague Philharmonia] This coupling is the most famous and usual of all Mendelssohn's symphonies, they're very different, and yet fit together perfectly, i bought this disc because of the front cover booklet for one thing, i believe it's of a Loch in Scotland, which ties in with the 'Scottish' of Symphony 3 on the disc, the photography is by Ondrej Zacek, a picture of an overcast day, with dull colours, Mendelssohn is in blue in the lake, and the rest of the words in white on the shore, very nicely laid out, and the Supraphon logo gives it that splash of red, i like it very much, there's a great symmetry to it all.
Jiri Belohlavek is a Czech Conductor, born in 1946, now 65 years old, he has extensively recorded for Supraphon and Chandos, and seems to have concentrated more on Bohemian composers [Martinu / Dvorak / Suk etc], this recording was made in 2006, it's very well recorded, i can't fault it at all, Belohlavek seems to hold a nice middle ground in all respects in his interpretations.
I very much liked the first two movements, they go so well together, the fast and slow twins of the Symphony, ying and yang etc, however it was only when i got to the last movement that the extreme brilliance of Mendelssohn came to the fore, it's an exhilarating Saltarello Presto, played at breakneck speed, i can really feel it would make a phenomenal virtuoso piano transcription, just over 5 minutes of breathtaking-ness, the machine gun opening is startling, with high trills on the woodwind, and those opening flutes have lively dancing figures [0:06], and everyone seems to join in the tune, the violins especially get frantic [0:39], there's a shimmering and pulsating here, the violins display a fleetness which is hair-raising, and Mendelssohn never lets anyone have a rest, the whole thing is so incessant!, there's a sort of middle trio section, where the violins drizzle all over the place [2:25], and the cellos play copycat too [2:38], and so do the woodwind to some degree, but the opening riffs keep threatening to come back, and they do with a vehement forte [3:34], and the timpani join in the anger too, afterwards all the different string sections drizzle all over the place one by one [3:54], the opening shimmering riffs come back again and again, until the final curtain, a really breathtaking movement, it dances and jives all over the place.
Here's Juri Gilbo conducting the Fourth movement on YouTube.
