Search - Carl Maria von Weber, Felix [1] Mendelssohn, Hector Berlioz :: Mengelberg Conducts Liszt, Berlioz, Weber

Exciting performances reissued.

John Austin | Kangaroo Ground, Australia | 11/08/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I hope these stunning performances will reach many hearers via this excellent Naxos reissue. They date from the last fifteen years of Mengelberg?s 50 year conductorship of the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra. Mengelberg was never a conductor to ensure that his orchestra merely ?got it right?. He carefully considered how each performance, live or recorded, might make the most impact on its hearers. Positioning players and microphones in odd ways might be detected as you listen to these recordings, where sometimes a plucked harp string sounds louder than an oboe solo. What he called ?changements? were sometimes made to the composer?s score too, if he believed he had a better way of realizing the composer?s intentions. Composers such as Richard Strauss and Gustav Mahler adored him and what he did. There is the additional interest for listeners to these elderly but silent surfaced recordings in hearing how his orchestra negotiated the many hairpin turns in dynamics and rhythm in perfect accord. Listen to the last few minutes of the ?Oberon? Overture, as an example. All recordings, originally made in the Concergebouw, were stunning in sound quality in their day, and are now amongst the very best of the Mark Obert-Thorn restorations released by Naxos."

Great Berlioz and Liszt, mediocre Weber and Mendelssohn

madamemusico | Cincinnati, Ohio USA | 01/27/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Mengelberg was considered a great conductor in his day, but as time has passed his reputation has become tarnished, largely because of his pacifying the Nazis during the occupation of the Netherlands during WW2 and partly because his continual fiddling around with the score seems, nowadays, even more fussy and artificial than the changes made by Furtwangler or Toscanini.



Nevertheless, the Berlioz and Liszt here are magnificent performances: the Liszt, in fact, is essentially sui generis, the greatest performance of this much-maligned music you will ever hear. Mengelberg's "Racokzy March" is certainly the equal of Toscanini's in intensity. But the Mendelssohn Scherzo is too slow and sounds too fussy, while the Weber overtures, for some reason, completely lack the excitement and momentum given to these works by Weingartner, Furtwangler or even Toscanini.



But "Les Preludes" is a gem - one of the immortal orchestral recordings of all time. Get it for that, at least."