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Andris Nelsons’ tenure may have been prematurely terminated in Boston, but this handsome box set with his other ensemble, the venerable Gewandhaus Orchestra, is proof positive of the Latvian conductor’s prodigious talent. Of course, Mendelssohn is in the orchestra’s DNA – after all, the composer held the reins in Leipzig from 1835 until his death in 1847 – but these performances, especially of the five symphonies, are pretty special.
Recorded live between 2021 and 2024, tempi are brisk, though never rushed. It’s the phrasing, elastic and full of dynamic light and shade, that brings these accounts to life. Listen to the ultra-lithe opening movement of the Italian Symphony, or the filigree woodwind in the Scottish Symphony’s scherzo. In Nelsons’ hands, the First Symphony – often the Cinderella of the set – takes its place alongside its more colourful cousins.
The seven-disc set includes two oratorios, familiar in this country in their Victorian English translation, but sung here in German. Elias (Elijah) features a distinguished lineup, including Golda Schultz, Werner Güra and Wiebke Lehmkuhl. Andrè Schuen sings the title role with a Lieder singer’s instinct for text in a performance that can stand comparison with Fischer-Dieskau. The MDR Radio Choir is a trifle polite in the Baal choruses, but the men in particular make a tremendous noise.
Especially welcome is Deutsche Grammophon’s first recording of Paulus (St Paul). Nelsons ferrets out the drama in Elias’s diffident relative, and if Georg Zeppenfeld is a little grumbly as the pugnacious apostle, there’s a radiant account of the soprano solos by Julia Kleiter.
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