Mendelssohn in Birmingham, Vol. 3

The third in Chandos’s ‘Mendelssohn in Birmingham’ series with the City of Birmingham Symphony led by Edward Gardner features “Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage” and his Symphony No. 2.The overture’s densely textured, slow opening evocation of oceanic calm and the following, quickening full-orchestral crescendo strikingly depict Goethe’s verses.The fusion of neo-baroque procedures with romantic sentiment provides the backdrop to a symphony made up of three orchestral movements and a choral finale, in which contrapuntal arias contrast with exuberant, dramatic choral sections.