Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) ARTIST NOTE Jewish roots. In addition to the great artists and Concerto in D minor thinkers of the time that would frequent his family As I was first becoming acquainted with these home, the Mendelssohn family’s Jewish heritage CONCERTO FOR VIOLIN, PIANO AND two early Mendelssohn concerti, I was captivated clearly remained with them. STRING IN D MINOR by the youthful spirit which seems to bound off the page. Written only the following year, the Concerto for Violin, Piano and in D The D minor Concerto for Violin is the earlier of minor brings us a much more mature musician. in D minor the two, and evidently so – the almost childlike His grasp of form is impressive, showcased in 1 Allegro molto [9.12] innocence of the emotional content is constantly each movement, but in particular the colossal 2 Andante [7.41] charming. As I was playing it, I was struck by first movement. Here, his teenage exuberance the contrast between the heavily Baroque is in full swing. Brilliantly virtuosic, tender, 3 Allegro [5.16] influenced orchestral exposition and the violin’s playful, and restless, he could hardly have much more improvisatory line. Time and again, packed more in. Everything is on a grand scale Concerto for Violin, Piano and String Orchestra in D minor the operatic quality of the writing grabbed my yet what fun it is to play! After the attention; here like a coloratura, there a recitativo, engaging orchestral exposition, it is a wonderful 4 Allegro [18.55] and always with the natural and breathing lines release when the piano and violin finally 5 Adagio [9.00] we associate with Mendelssohn. The playful begin in a whirl of notes. Again, some of the passages in the outer movements tell of the recitativo passages are remarkable in their bold 6 Allegro molto [9.41] brilliant virtuosity which will flow from his pen romanticism and freedom of expression. The in so many of his later works, including the noble, simple and beautiful second movement Total timings: [59.42] Double Concerto on this disc. The similarities is masterful, and the last is dazzling in its between the slow movement of the D minor cascades of sound – chasing, arguing, teasing, Concerto played here and the famous E minor flirting, and dancing, always fleet of foot. concerto are remarkable. Indeed, both are really TAMSIN WALEY-COHEN VIOLIN Songs Without Words; simple Gondolier’s songs, Both are a joy to play, for their beauty and HUW WATKINS PIANO gently lilting, without pretension. The Klezmer-like brilliance, and bringing us back to the teenage ORCHESTRA OF THE SWAN DAVID CURTIS CONDUCTOR dancing last movement seemed to come to life world of endless exploration and possibility. during our rehearsals, telling of Mendelssohn’s © 2013 Tamsin Waley-Cohen www.signumrecords.com - 3 - Mendelssohn: Two Early Concertos Night’s Dream. From his earliest years he seemed As grandson of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn of his String Symphonies and an opera, The to have a natural affinity for string instruments, and son of the banker Abraham Mendelssohn, Two Nephews. ‘Mendelssohn … is the Mozart of the 19th as is well illustrated by the twelve-and-a-bit whose wife also belonged to a prominent Jewish century; the most brilliant among musicians, Sinfonias for string orchestra he wrote between family, Mendelssohn and his siblings were raised The Concerto in D minor for violin and string the one who has most clearly recognized the the ages of 12 and 14 (student works half-way in an extraordinarily cultured background and orchestra dates from 1822: that is, 22 years contradictions of the time, and the first to between Baroque symphonies and string were given the best possible education. When before Mendelssohn’s ‘other’ and much more reconcile them’. This was the verdict of Robert writ large) and the aforementioned String , the family relocated from Hamburg to in famous Violin Concerto in E minor. The piece Schumann, greeting the publication of Felix written at age 16, essentially conceived as a 1811, for fear of Napoleon, their house became has a curious history. After Mendelssohn’s death Mendelssohn’s D minor in 1840. The symphony-like double string . an intellectual and artistic salon frequented in 1847, his widow gave the manuscript to the comparison with Mozart was already almost a by leading artists, scientists and musicians. It renowned violinist-composer Ferdinand David, a commonplace, partly because of Mendelssohn’s More than 160 years after his death, has been said that ‘ came to their living close friend of Mendelssohn who had premiered sure instinct for classically-balanced form, Mendelssohn’s position as a crucial link between room’. In addition to such luminaries as Hegel, the E minor concerto; but David apparently and partly for the seeming youthfulness of his the Classical style of Mozart and Beethoven Heine, von Humboldt and the mathematician did nothing with it, and the score returned to inspiration. Both composers, of course, had and the high Romantic style of Schumann and Dirichlet, Mendelssohn studied with Zelter, one the Mendelssohn family and was handed down been child prodigies, and in fact it is the Brahms is quite secure. Yet he is still an of the first 19th-century enthusiasts for the within the family for several generations. At brilliant music of Mendelssohn’s extreme youth imperfectly-known composer, whose reputation music of JS Bach, and regularly met leading some point after World War II it was acquired by that has continued to uphold his reputation. continues to rest on a very partial selection of musicians from the Berlin Philharmonic the -based rare book dealer (and amateur his works: the last two symphonies, say, the Orchestra. His adolescent works – even his violinist) Albi Rosenthal, who in the spring of It’s often said that if Mozart and Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E minor, the Hebrides overture, orchestral works – were performed at his 1951 showed this ‘lost’ Mendelssohn concerto had both died at the age of 20, Mendelssohn the Midsummer Night’s Dream music, the parents’ house by a private orchestra drawn to the world-famous violin virtuoso Yehudi would have been accounted by far the greater Octet and some of the other major chamber from these players. In such an environment Menuhin, who as a teenager had premiered the composer – for though both of them wrote compositions and the Songs without Words for his musical genius flowered and he wrote a ‘lost’ violin concerto of Schumann. Menuhin was copious music from an early age, Mendelssohn’s piano. Even the music of his brilliant early years remarkable series of works: no doubt intended at immediately attracted to the work and bought early works surpass Mozart’s in both substance is by no means familiar in its entirety: for first for domestic consumption, but also with his the rights to it from the surviving members of and originality. It was only later that Mozart’s instance, it includes the two concertos heard on ambitions fixed on a wider world. For example the Mendelssohn family, then living in genius came to full fruition, while in the view of this disc, written between the ages of 13 and 14. in 1822-23, in addition to the two concertos Switzerland. He gave the work its first public many critics Mendelssohn never surpassed his featured here, he composed a second Piano performance at Carnegie Hall, New York on 4 teenaged achievements in works like the String It is important to understand the milieu in which Quartet (the first was already published!), a February 1952, conducting a string orchestra Octet or the incidental music to A Midsummer Mendelssohn’s early symphonic works appeared. Piano Concerto, a Concerto for 2 pianos, eight with his violin bow, and it was published the

- 4 - - 5 - same year. Subsequently Menuhin played the Mendelssohn had studied in Paris in 1816. mind Beethoven’s Triple Concerto for violin, up by the piano, the violin only entering later, concerto many times and made three recordings The concerto’s three movements represent a , piano and orchestra; he would certainly after which the orchestra has little to contribute of it, but it has never entered the mainstream kind of historical progression. The first, with have known that Mozart began such a work while the two soloists engage in an extended, repertoire, remaining rather on the fringes of it. its angular, broken melodic lines, recalls the only to abandon it (leaving a tantalizing almost operatic dialogue. The effervescent Allegro mannered empfindsam (ultra-sensitive) style fragment, K135f anh. 56). Laid out on an molto finale, in sonata form with a pell-mell Among his other talents, Mendelssohn was an associated with CPE Bach. Unlike the later E altogether larger scale than the D minor first and a sweetly lyrical second subject, is an excellent violinist even in his childhood, and minor concerto it begins with an orchestral Violin Concerto, this Double Concerto is one of utter delight of post-Mozartian charm and gave his first recital at the age of 9, though he exposition, and is continuously restless in mood. Mendelssohn’s most brilliant adolescent works. tremendous energy, culminating in a later took the piano for his chief instrument. He By contrast the opening of the D major Andante Superficially the two solo instruments would breathtakingly brilliant conclusion. wrote the D minor Concerto not for himself but for is based on a theme at once serenely classical, seem to be almost incompatible, though of his friend and violin teacher Eduard Rietz. Rietz even Mozartian in its poise; while the finale, course the pianoforte of Mendelssohn’s day was © 2013 Malcolm MacDonald was only three years Mendelssohn’s senior – he a lively, humorous rondo in a popular (almost a gentler, lighter beast than today’s concert would later help to found the Berlin Philharmonic gypsy) style, bristles with solo figurations grand: but he uses them with such resource Society and was the concertmaster when reflecting the virtuoso styles of Mendelssohn’s and knowledge of their respective qualities the 19-year-old Mendelssohn revived Bach’s own time. (There are written-out cadenzas in that there is never a sense of incongruity. They St Matthew Passion in 1829, a legendary both the second and the third movements.) As dialogue with one another, they mimic each other, performance which did much to restore public Yehudi Menuhin declared, it shows a remarkable the piano accompanies the violin (and vice versa) awareness of Bach’s music. freedom and elasticity of form. and they are also given solo spots of their own.

This concerto for violin and strings is, in a sense, It was not long afterwards, in 1823, that The piece clocks in at nearly 40 minutes, and a cousin of Mendelssohn’s contemporary series Mendelssohn composed the Concerto for Violin, every one of them is entrancing. The grand of symphonies for string orchestra. Like them it Piano and String Orchestra in D minor. Following first movement Allegro, a spacious concertante derives not so much from Mozart or Beethoven as the composition of the D minor Violin Concerto sonata form with double exposition for soli from CPE Bach and the North German symphonic and the A minor Piano Concerto composed and orchestra and cadenzas for both soloists, school; equally important is the influence of the earlier in 1822 this may have seemed to him takes up more than half the piece and displays French violin school represented by Viotti and like a logical next step (he probably envisaged precisely that perfect command of form which his Parisian followers, who included Rodolphe Rietz and himself as soloists), though there Mendelssohn seems to have been born with. The Kreutzer, Pierre Rode (Eduard Rietz’s teacher) were few earlier examples to which he could Adagio opens with an orchestral introduction and Pierre Baillot, with whom the young have looked as models. He may have had in setting out the main theme, which is then taken

- 6 - - 7 - TAMSIN WALEY-COHEN In demand as a recitalist, Tamsin’s partners winning the 2005 Royal Overseas League String include Huw Watkins, Tom Poster and Time Prize and the 2007 J&A Beare Bach competition. Tamsin Waley-Cohen is associate artist with Horton. She has worked with artists such as Orchestra of the Swan and performs as a Andreas Haefliger, Heinz Holliger and Anssi Tamsin has been a regular participant at the soloist with many others including the Royal Kartonnen and premiered works by composers International Musicians’ Seminar at Prussia Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra of St John’s, including Torsten Rasch and Richard Causton; Cove since she was 16. She has also London Concert Orchestra and London Chamber at a recent Presteigne festival she gave the participated in master classes given by Ida Orchestra, and the Brighton Philharmonic, premiere of a new “Concertino” written for her Haendel, Igor Ozim, and Ruggiero Ricci, the under conductors including Tamas Vasary, by Huw Watkins. Tamsin values her experience latter describing her as “the most exceptionally Andrew Litton, Jose Serebrier, Shlomo Mintz and as a chamber musician and has formed the gifted young violinist I have ever encountered.” Nicolae Moldoveanu. She has played at the Honeymead Ensemble, resident at the Tricycle Cadogan, Queen Elizabeth and Barbican halls in Theatre in London as well as the Honeymead She is the current Artistic Director of London’s London, Symphony Hall , Bridgewater Festival on Exmoor. In its first four years it Tricycle Theatre’s Chamber Music Series in Hall Manchester, the Liszt Academy Hall, has included Adrian Brendel, Guy Ben-Ziony, Kilburn. Since 2007 Tamsin has played the 1721 Budapest and in venues across the UK and Leon McCauley, Thomas Carroll, and Sarah- ex-Fenyves violin. the Continent. She has performed at the Jane Bradley. Tamsin has performed in many Wigmore Hall and Cadogan Hall in London, festivals - Cheltenham, Academia San Felice, as well as in concerto and chamber music Florence Chamber Music, The Red Violin, The concerts in Italy, France and Sweden. Tamsin’s Two Moors, Stift and Presteigne, and in debut recording ‘Americans in Paris’ was released 2010 made her American debut with the on the Champs Hill label in 2013. She is now Mendelssohn Concerto in the Bowdoin Festival. a Signum Artist with several new recordings planned, including Vaughan Williams’ “The Tamsin Waley-Cohen was born in London in Lark Ascending” and a chamber recording 1986. She became a Foundation Scholar, studying of music from the year 1917 by Debussy, Elgar with Itzhak Rashkovsky, at the Royal College Respighi and Sibelius. of Music where she won all available awards, including – twice – the concerto competition, © tbc and was their String Player of the Year in 2005. Numerous competition successes include

- 8 - - 9 - HUW WATKINS A favourite partner for chamber collaborations, Orchestra of the Swan Huw Watkins performs regularly with his brother Huw Watkins was born in Wales in 1976. He Paul Watkins, as well as Alina Ibragimova, 1st Violin studied piano with Peter Lawson at Chetham’s Tamsin Waley-Cohen, James Gilchrist, Daniel David Le Page School of Music and composition with Robin Hope, Nicholas Daniel, Sebastian Manz, Mark Amelia Jones Holloway, Alexander Goehr and Julian Anderson Padmore, Carolyn Sampson, and Alexandra Kokila Gillett at Cambridge and the Royal College of Music. Wood. Recently Huw has featured as both Shelley Van Loen In 2001 he was awarded the Constant and Kit Composer in Residence and pianist at festivals Simon Howes Lambert Junior Fellowship at the Royal College including Presteigne and Lars Vogt’s ‘Spannungen’ of Music, where he now teaches composition. Festival in Heimbach, . 2nd Violin Cathy Hamer As a pianist, Huw Watkins is in great demand Huw Watkins is one of Britain’s foremost Amy Littlewood with and festivals including the composers. His music has been performed Caroline Mitchell London Sinfonietta, Britten Sinfonia, the BBC throughout Europe and North America. Naomi Rump orchestras and Aldeburgh and Cheltenham Festivals. Huw has also developed a strong Huw is regularly featured on BBC Radio 3, both relationship with the Orchestra of the Swan as a performer and as a composer. He has Adrian Turner where he is ‘Composer in the House’ and with recorded for Chandos, Nimbus, Wergo, EMI Vanessa Murby whom he has performed regularly over the years. Classics, Champs Hill and Signum. Most March Chivers Strongly committed to the performance of new recently, NMC Records have released a disc music, Huw has given premieres of works by dedicated to Huw Watkins’ work. Cello Alexander Goehr, Peter Maxwell Davies, Michael Nick Stringfellow Zev Gordon and Mark-Anthony Turnage. He Robyn Austin recently presented a programme of Hans Werner Anna Joubert Henze’s piano works at the BBC’s Total Immersion day at the Barbican. Lucy Heath Sam Riches

- 10 - - 11 - “… a brilliant performance.” with the American Composers Orchestra and two Daily Telegraph world premiere recordings.

“Orchestra of the Swan does a fine job of TV appearances include the South Bank Show revealing the qualities of this master” with Tasmin Little, and CDs have been New York Times Gramophone Choice, CD of the Week on Classic Fm and Washington Public Radio, and in the Orchestra of the Swan is resident in Shakespeare’s top 20 Classical Albums for 2011 on Chicago Stratford-upon-Avon and Associate Orchestra Public Radio. OOTS broadcasts live on BBC at Town Hall, Birmingham, performing at major Radio3 and performances have been networked venues and festivals throughout the UK to 260 USA Public Radio Stations and Chinese including Cadogan Hall London, Symphony Hall Television featuring the cellists Julian Lloyd Birmingham, Arts Centre St David’s Hall Webber and Jiaxin Cheng. Cardiff, Bridgewater Hall, The Sage, Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall Orchestra of the Swan records for Avie, Naxos, and the Royal Albert Hall. MSR Classics and Somm. Repertoire includes work by Barber, Bax, Berlioz*, Brahms, Copland, OOTS is a major champion of new music and Debussy, Finzi, Hans Gal, Gershwin, Daren has commissioned work from Joe Cutler, Tansy Hagen*, Ireland, Mahler, Mozart, James Schleffer*, Davies, Joe Duddell, Alexander Goehr, John Schumann, Johan Strauss and Vivaldi. Joubert, Joanna Lee, Roxanna Panufnik, Paul Patterson, Joseph Phibbs, Julian Philips, Dobrinka *world premiere recordings. Tabakova, Param Vir, Errollyn Wallen, Shu Wang, John Woolrich and many others.

OOTS’ Spring Sounds Spring Sounds Festival 2011 celebrated new work with 7 world premieres, visiting composers, soloists and conductors from the USA, a joint commission

- 12 - - 13 - David Curtis Artistic Director

“Curtis’s conducting, if close to Boult’s, is more intimate, and slightly more perceptive” American Record Guide (Ireland Piano concerto)

“… his imaginative programmes have a Recorded live in Cheltenham Town Hall, Gloucestershire on 15th February 2013. knack of making connections which are Producer - Alexander Van Ingen genuinely stimulating.” Recording Engineer - Mike Hatch Recording Assistant - Craig Jenkins The Guardian Editor - Dave Rowell

Cover Image - © tbc His thought-provoking programming, infectious Design and Artwork - Woven Design enthusiasm and refreshing interpretations have www.wovendesign.co.uk established him on the international stage, P 2013 The copyright in this CD booklet, notes and design is owned by Signum Records Ltd working in Europe, the USA and Far East, © 2013 The copyright in this CD booklet, notes and design is owned by Signum Records Ltd conducting the Academy of St Martin’s-in- Any unauthorised broadcasting, public performance, copying or re-recording of Signum Compact Discs constitutes an infringement of copyright and will render the infringer liable to an action by law. Licences for public performances or broadcasting may be obtained from Phonographic Performance Ltd. All the-Field, Chamber Orchestra, Prague rights reserved. No part of this booklet may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, Radio Symphony Orchestra. He appears as photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission from Signum Records Ltd. soloist and conductor in Finland with the SignumClassics, Signum Records Ltd., Suite 14, 21 Wadsworth Road, Perivale, Middx UB6 7JD, UK. Mikkeli City Orchestra, the Roveniemi Chamber +44 (0) 20 8997 4000 E-mail: [email protected] and Yvaskyla Symphony Orchestras in the concert www.signumrecords.com hall and on Finnish Radio.

David champions new work, premiering at least 50 works by leading composers from the UK, Europe, China and the USA including four world premieres in the Nordic Music Days for Icelandic Radio.

- 14 - - 15 - CTP Template: CD_INL1 COLOURS Compact Disc Back Inlay CYAN MAGENTA Customer SignumClassics YELLOW Catalogue No.SIGCD342 BLACK Job Title: MENDELSSOHN

SIGNUM CLASSICS SIGCD342 (1809-1847)

Violin Concerto in D minor MENDELSSOHN CONCERTO FOR VIOLIN, PIANO AND STRING

ORCHESTRA IN D MINOR

Violin Concerto in D minor 1 Allegro molto [9.12] 2 Andante [7.41] | 3 Allegro [5.16] CURTIS O.O.T.S, WATKINS, WALEY-COHEN,

Concerto for Violin, Piano and String Orchestra in D minor 4 Allegro [18.55] 5 Adagio [9.00] 6 Allegro molto [9.41] WALEY-COHEN, WATKINS, O.O.T.S, CURTIS |

Total timings: [59.42]

TAMSIN WALEY-COHEN VIOLIN HUW WATKINS PIANO

ORCHESTRA OF THE SWAN

DAVID CURTIS CONDUCTOR

MENDELSSOHN LC15723

Signum Records Ltd, Suite 14, 21 Wadsworth Road, SIGCD342

CLASSICS Perivale, Middx UB6 7JD, United Kingdom. P 2013 Signum Records DDD SIGCD342 © 2013 Signum Records www.signumrecords.com 24 bit digital recording 6 35212 03422 4 SIGNUM