Felix Mendelssohn was a curious composer. Fluent, melodic, attractive. But rather like composers such as Haydn or Saint-Saëns, his music reveals almost nothing of himself, or his feelings. The shadows and emotions that enliven composers as diverse as Mozart, Schubert, Beethoven, Bruckner or Shostakovich are absent from Mendelssohn's music (apart from the wonderful Op 80 string quartet in F minor).
So I listened with pleasure to Leonidas Kavakos, with Enrico Pace and Patrick Demenga in the first and second piano trios. Agreeable music, very well played and recorded. But no emotions are stirred. It's like being at a polite and well-behaved tea party.
So I listened with pleasure to Leonidas Kavakos, with Enrico Pace and Patrick Demenga in the first and second piano trios. Agreeable music, very well played and recorded. But no emotions are stirred. It's like being at a polite and well-behaved tea party.
2 comments:
After Jascha & friends, I don't like others in the PT Op 49. What about you?
The trouble with the Heifetz / Rubinstein / Piatigorsky / Feuermann / Primrose recordings is that all too often the limelight goes on the superb playing by master virtuosi, and the music can get a little lost. Probably not too vital in Mendelssohn, but it certainly does matter in music by Mozart, Schubert et al.
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