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Franz Schubert: Overture in D major in the Italian Style, Unfinished Symphony Felix Mendelssohn: Fingal's Cave Overture, Reformation Symphony Vincent D'Indy: Overture to "Fervaal" Heinz Unger/National Symphony Orchestra, Sir Adrian Boult/BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sir Thomas Beecham/London Symphony Orchestra, Charles Munch/L'Orchestre de la Societe du Conservetoire de Paris (Works Recorded between 1936 to 1947) VIP Records CL-1007 - $12.50 (US Shipping Including) 
 Mendelssohn & Schubert: Symphonic Favorites Two of the most well-loved composers in the history of classical music are Felix Mendelssohn and Franz Schubert. Unlike composers like Beethoven, Mahler and Wagner, their music is relatively free of inwardly-directed turmoil, depending instead on the classical perfection of form, drama derived from nature, and beautiful melodies to make an impact on the listener. Felix Mendelssohn 
Felix Mendelssohn was a child prodigy, proficient at playing the piano and composition from a very young age. By the age of 17, he had already completed twelve symphonies for string orchestra, as well as his famous overture to Shakespere's "A Midsummer's Night Dream". He toured Europe as a young man, and many of his most famous works were composed from fragments sketched in countries he visited in his travels.The "Hebrides Overture", better known as "Fingal's Cave" was sketched out in 1830 and revised in 1832. The music recalls the craggy stretch of seacoast in Scotland Mendelssohn viewed from the deck of a ferry boat after a visit with Sir Walter Scott. A 227 foot cavern straddles the ocean in this lonely and rugged place. Its walls are composed of enormous basalt pillars, which suggest the pipes of a monumental church organ. Mendelssohn's music clearly depicts the surging power of the surf rushing in and out of the cave as well as the colossal size of the powerful columns of rock. 
Mendelssohn's "Reformation Symphony" was composed around the same time as "Fingal's Cave", and it too had its genesis in his visit to Scotland. Mendelssohn was inspired to create a symphony based on Martin Luther's hymn, "Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott" (A mighty fortress is our God) and the "Dresden Amen" theme (later used to great effect in Wagner's "Parsifal"). The symphony was intended to be performed as a part of festivities honoring the 300th anniversary of Luther's publication of the articles of faith known as the Augsburg Confession. Although Mendelssohn had been baptized and raised in the Lutheran church, his Jewish ancestry may have played a large part in preventing the performance of this work in official events celebrating the anniversary. After a couple of unsuccessful performances, he set the work aside, and the symphony wasn't published until after the composer's death in 1847.
Mendelssohn was appointed the director of the Dusseldorf music academy in 1833, and composed many sacred works for the local chorus and orchestra. He moved to Leipzig to become music director of the Gewandhaus orchestra, where he became well known as an interpreter of Beethoven and Mozart. He widely promoted awareness of the music of Bach at festivals throughout Europe. In 1843, Mendelssohn established a conservatory in Leipzig, and taught there for his remaining years. In 1847, his sister Fanny passed away, and her death came as a tremendous blow. His health deteriorated and he succumbed to a stroke later the same year.Some argue that Mendelssohn's best work was produced in his youth. But there are plenty of examples of great works from his mature years to discredit that notion. After his death, musical tastes shifted to more inwardly focused music. Mendelssohn's sunny melodies and essentially happy life didn't fit the formula of those championing the idea of composer as "tortured artist", so his music began slipping from favor. During WW2, the Nazis tried to obliterate his memory entirely, forbidding the public performance of his works and removing the statue erected in his honor in Leipzig. But they weren't successful. Today, Mendelssohn is regarded as one of the most important musicians of his day, worthy of standing alongside the musical giants... Bach, Mozart and Beethoven. Franz Schubert 
Franz Schubert's genius went relatively unrecognized during his lifetime. Unlike composers such as Mozart, Mendelssohn and Beethoven, he was not an accomplished performer on any particular instrument, so it was difficult for him to establish an audience for his music among the general public. He struggled to support himself for most of his life, and when he died at the young age of 31, he left behind over a thousand works... operas, religious works, symphonies, concerti, chamber music, sonatas and art songs... only a tiny handful of which had been published or performed during his lifetime.In 1816, the music-going public in Vienna became enamored with Italian music, and Schubert found the shift in taste had left him without commissions. In order to survive, he composed two "Overtures in the Italian Style" in direct competition with Rossini. The Overture in D major was one of the pieces performed in 1818 at the only public performance of his works during his lifetime. The loose structure and dynamic vividness of the piece are derivative of Rossini, but the lyrical melodies and Viennese charm are all Schubert. The most popular of Schubert's works today, the 8th symphony known as the "Unfinished" laid lost and forgotten for forty years after its composition. The manuscript was eventually discovered in the possession of the president of a Viennese music society. Schubert had given it to him in 1823, but the man never bothered to deliver it to his membership. Consisting of just the first two movements... an opening in sonata form, followed by a slow movement... Schubert's fragmentary masterpiece is a perfect blend of lyrical and dramatic moments. Many writers have commented on the amazing structural unity of the two movements, contrasting stormy turbulence with blissful peace. But Schubert himself would probably have disagreed. He clearly intended for the work to have a scherzo and finale like other symphonies of the day. No one knows why he didn't complete the final two movements, and the subject has led to a great deal of speculation, but the most likely explanation is that he simply lost interest and moved on to other works. 
Although brilliant compositions continued to pour out of his pen, Schubert's health steadily deteriorated due to advanced syphilis and typhoid fever. He died at the home of his brother in Vienna, and at his request was buried alongside Beethoven. In 1838, Robert Schumann unearthed the manuscript of his 9th symphony and delivered it to Felix Mendelssohn, who conducted it to great success. In 1867, Sir Arthur Sullivan and Sir George Grove (famous for "Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians") discovered and published numerous Schubert scores which would otherwise have been lost to time.Franz List was quoted as calling Schubert "the most poetic" of composers. He worked quickly in an improvisational style that gives his work a "singing quality" that is colorful with variety and richly melodic. Although he was unappreciated in his own time, his work has become a popular staple in the concert repetoire. The Conductors Dr. Heinz Unger heard Bruno Walter conduct Mahler in Munich in 1915 and decided on the spot to become a conductor and champion of the music of Mahler. Five years later, he had his professional conducting debut, leading the Berlin Philharmonic in a series of concerts devoted to Mahler's works. He later toured Europe and the Soviet Union before settling in London in 1933. Unger conducted hundreds of wartime performances with all the great British orchestras, including The National Symphony Orchestra in London, with whom he made this recording of Mendelssohn's Italian Overture in D. After the war, he emegrated to Canada, and was a well-known guest conductor with orchestras all over the world until he died soon after celebrating his fiftieth year as a conductor in 1965. 
Sir Thomas Beecham was a multi-faceted British conductor, as adept at the interpretation of the music of Handel and Mendelssohn as he was with Delius and Sibelius. His 1937 recording of Schubert's "Unfinished Symphony" stood out among a crowded field of competing recordings, remaining the top pick of most music critics for over a decade. Beecham's quick wit made him the subject of many funny stories. My favorite is the one about the female cellist whose playing displeased Beecham. He politely pointed out the problem to her, but she continued, oblivious to his irritation... "Madam" Beecham quipped, "You posess between your legs an instrument capable of bringing great pleasure to mankind, yet you persist in scratching it!"
Sir Adrian Boult was born in 1889 and studied in Westminster and Oxford. His advanced studies were at Mendelssohn's own Leipzig Conservatory, where he learned to conduct by studying Arthur Nikisch. He championed the work of many contemporary British composers including Holst, Elgar and Vaughan Williams. In 1920, Boult was appointed to the directorship of the City of Birmingham Orchestra; and in 1930, he assumed the title of director of music at the BBC as well. Boult was known for demanding high standards of musicianship from his orchestra members, and they were expected to be able to absorb unfamiliar pieces in a short amount of rehearsal time. This recording of "Fingal's Cave", recorded in 1936, is among his finest recordings with the BBC orchestra.
Charles Munch was born and raised in Strasbourg, Germany. He taught violin at the Strasbourg Conservatory, and in 1926 became concert master under Furtwangler in Leipzig. Munch left Germany for Paris in 1934, and formed the Paris Philharmonic Orchestra soon after arriving. In 1938, he conducted the orchestra of the Concert Society of the Paris Conservatory. Throughout WW2, he worked with the French resistance movement, protecting French musicians from persecution by the Nazis. For this work, he was awarded the French Legion of Honor medal after the war. Mendelssohn's "Reformation Symphony" was one of his last recordings with the Paris Conservatory orchestra, before he departed for America to accept the music director's post at the Boston Symphony. It is interesting because it is one of Decca's very first FFRR (full frequency range recordings).Bonus Track: D'Indy's Overture to "Fervaal" Also included on this CD is a bonus track which occupied the last side of the "Reformation Symphony" set. It is the overture to Vincent D'Indy's opera, "Fervaal". D'Indy was a student of Cesar Franck, and founded the Schola Cantorum in Paris. His opera "Fervaal" was influenced by the music-dramas of Richard Wagner, utilizing the same sort of large scale orchestra and leitmotifs to tell the story of the triumph of sacrificial love and Christian purity over pagan religion. About The Sound Restoration I have included an MP3 file of my raw unrestored transfer of one side of the "Reformation Symphony" along with the same side after noise reduction. I think you will be amazed at the degree of improvement I was able to achieve without impacting the quality of the music at all. This early FFRR (full frequency range recording) is a real knockout. 78s don't sound better than this! -Stephen Worth
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