Just watched the Schiff/Schumann Piano Concerto Prom on BBC 4 tonight. Wonderful. And orchestral players singing the encore was wonderful too. BUT I do have a pet hate. Mendelssohn's Scotch Symphony. I have a great love of Mendelssohn generally...especially his light touch in orchestration in for instance the overture to MSND and in the Italian Symphony. Bur I find his Scotch most untypical, Stodgy and boring IMHO, and the superb BFO had to overdo the shapes of phrases and introduce unmarked dynamic contrasts to inject a bit of life into it. All the players standing to play its final bars was maybe another boring-relief strategy. (I've conducted it, and it was boring to wag the stick at....and no doubt tedious for the players at the receiving end.) Anyone share my view? What happened to that early genius of the Octet?
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Last edited by ardcarp; 18-08-23, 22:00. -
While I do find some of Felix' later works stodgy and dull I do like the Scottish Symphony. It needs a firm hand on the tiller, though, something it shares with another 'third', Schumann's 'Rhenish'.
From what you say I don't think you'd enjoy a performance released on DVD with a rather ill-looking Benjamin Britten plodding through it for te sake of HM Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother who was present. I'd recommend Herbert, or , my own favourite, Otto Klemperer with the Bavarian Radio orchestra and his own rather naughty and rather Mahlerian 'alternative ending'. -
Did he drink it neat, or on the rocks (near Fingal's Cave)?Comment
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My thoughts exactly! Did he prefer Laphroag to Lagavulin, or Highland Park or Auchentoshan, for example.Originally posted by Pulcinella View Post
I'm guessing that there must be some whisky adverts based on this idea.
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Didn’t Orwell once write that If you want to annoy a Scot call them Scotch rather than Scots or Scottish ?
I like the work esp the Sounds Without Words slow movement. I also think the A major coda theme in the finale one of the best tunes Mendelssohn wrote. An opinion not shared by Otto Klemperer who rewrote the coda to continue the downbeat A minor feel. Can you imagine a conductor doing that now? . It is from time to time a bit harmonically predictable but it has so many nice touches it deserves its place in the repertoire.Last edited by Ein Heldenleben; 19-08-23, 11:24.Comment
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Damn, you beat me to it, I was going to ask if single or double maltOriginally posted by Pulcinella View Post
I think the OP description of stodgy and dull applies to the Reformation Symphony. The Scotch Symphony was actually my gateway to Mendelssohn, as a teenager. I had borrowed the Bernstein/NYP coupling of the Symphony and Fingal and found it wonderfully atmospheric. I recently obtained that recording as a download and found it was a good antidote to other recordings where the players seem to be on auto pilotComment
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Its always been a favourite of mine especially that stirring coda, oh well chacun ...Comment
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If you think the Refomation symphony is dull, try Beecham's recording.Comment
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The Italian was my gateway to symphonic Mendelssohn...a very uplifting opening plus a sombre but atmospheric slow movement. But my early exposure to his Octet (played at home by my Dad and friends) was my first Mendelssohn epiphany. Then of course a little later there was Hear my Prayer as a choirboy with O for the Wings of a Dove and all that.The Scotch Symphony was actually my gateway to Mendelssohn, as a teenager.Comment
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Forget the Klemperer LSO Maag was my first my last my everything - a work and a performance to uplift the spirits!Originally posted by Ein Heldenleben View PostComment
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As far as I am concerned, the Jura is out.Originally posted by Dave2002 View Post
Well, the Islay certainly is - too peaty.
Anyway, it's the Scottish Symphony, and Scotch whisky.
(And if I ever get that wrong, it's a skelp fra' the Caledonian Ms Stoatfoe, even though it's me that has the Gaelic.)Comment
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Very much on the button. The Scots - or at least this one - see, "Scotch", as essentially condescending coming from the chinless wonders aka sassenachs south of the border. I have to remind myself from time to time that we all need to live in peaceful harmony together so any impulse to say that I really don't much like the English is to be immediately suppressed. Ish. I except Cornwall from that so am happy to agree with Cloughie that the LSO/Maag recording has hardly been bettered.Originally posted by Ein Heldenleben View Post
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Sassenach meaning Saxon. This description of us down here does apply to my wife who was born in Leipzig but possibly not to me since my surname is Celtic in origin. We, of course, preferred to name our country after the Angles rather than the Saxons.Originally posted by HighlandDougie View Post
I remember when living in Germany that they frequently used England to refer to the whole UK. An English friend over there told me that she once introduced herself as coming from the North of England, only to elicit the response - Oh you're Scottish.
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Mendelssohn’s SCOTTISH Symphony was an early introduction to classical music too. Inevitably, I had the cheapest recording which in 1978 was The Scottish National Orchestra conducted by Sir Alexander Gibson. I listened to it recently and it still stands up well in comparison to more glamorous recordings.
I’ve not seen the Proms performance on tv yet but when Fischer and the Budapest Orchestra played it last week in the Usher Hall they all stood up to play the coda! It really brought the house down!Comment
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