The Decca Ansermet Legacy on Eloquence continues to garner the highest plaudits from publications all around the world. And the latest batch presents the maestro’s recordings of four key Austro-German Romantics: Schubert, Weber, Mendelssohn and Schumann bringing together all of Ansermet’s Mendelssohn and Schubert recordings for Decca.
Adopting clarity and muscularity over homogeneity, Ansermet’s Mendelssohn has dalliance and grace, not to mention wit. The Schubert ‘Rosamunde‘ music is notable particularly for its gorgeously cradled B-flat Entr’acte as well as the Ballet Music No. 1, previously unpublished, possibly due to the limiting length of the LP side – the original LP coupling the Mendelssohn ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’ excerpts with Schubert’s ‘Rosamunde’.
FELIX MENDELSSOHN
Overture: Ruy Blas, Op. 95
Overture: Die schone Melusine, Op. 32
Overture: The Hebrides (Fingal’s Cave), Op. 26
Symphony No. 4 in A major, Op. 90 ‘Italian‘
A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Overture & Incidental Music (excerpts)
FRANZ SCHUBERT
Rosamunde: Incidental Music, D.747
L’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande
Ernest Ansermet
[Mendelssohn Symphony and Overtures] ‘…fresh, lovely and perceptive Mendelssohn playing, beautifully recorded’ Gramophone
[Midsummer Night’s Dream & Rosamunde] ‘…enjoyable and musicianly performances…’ Gramophone