According to a well-known German proverb, no one is born a master, but this adage is hard to credit when the master in question reveals his genius at the tender age of ten. It is said that soon after starting lessons with Carl Friedrich Zelter, the young Mendelssohn had already outgrown his mentor. The thirteen string symphonies that he wrote between 1821 and 1823 are not only evidence of his exceptionally rapid development, they are also, and above all, examples of wonderful, virtuoso music in the galant style that reveals the influence of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach.
Michael Hofstetter (li)
Foto: Deniz SaylanOther influences, especially in the slow movements, which often recall chorales and anticipate Mendelssohn’s later mastery in the field of the oratorio, are those of Johann Sebastian Bach and Handel. This mixture of traditional and forward-looking features is particularly clear from the new complete recording of these works on the Orfeo label. Founded more than fifty years ago, the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra has gradually built up a repertory that extends from the Baroque to the present day, thereby guaranteeing a flexible and keenly differentiated kind of playing, a flexibility due not least to the ensemble’s principal conductor, Michael Hofstetter, who is likewise at home in a wide variety of styles. The verve of the first symphony’s opening Allegro is maintained throughout all the fast movements, while the slow movements are characterized by their gently flowing cantabile lines, which extend to the quotations of folksongs found in the two “Swiss” symphonies. The last two symphonies, finally, are notable for their contrapuntal procedures and polyphonic accomplishment. Here the composer and his interpreters have found an appropriately playful approach to complex fugal subjects and developments. In this way this set of youthful works is brought to a suitably masterly conclusion, providing a further powerful addition to the 2009 celebrations marking the Mendelssohn bicentenary.