Mendelssohn - Symphony 3 'Scottish' [Belohlavek-Prague Philharmonia] I used to like Mendelssohn's Third Symphony more than his Fourth, which i played from this disc in march [24th March 2011], but now i feel the Fourth has overtaken it, there's something about the litheness of that work, mercurial and fast, especially the last movement, really thrilling, the Third by comparison, is a slower and a more thoughtful affair, i like to use an analogy here, the Fourth [actually composed 12 years before the Third], is like a gurgling stream, full of excitement and bubbling waterfalls, composed when Mendelssohn was 21, the Third is more like a stately river, slow and meandering, full of wisdom, composed when Mendelssohn was 33 [5 years before his death], it's a symphony which quite surprisingly i haven't heard for a while, so all the more joyous to make my acquaintance again.
Jiri Belohlavek was born in Czechoslovakia in 1946, he's mainly recorded for the Chandos and Supraphon labels, lots of Martinu, Dvorak, and Suk as you would expect, but lots of Brahms lately too, he made this recording in 2006, i so much like the booklet front photo [by Ondrej Zacek], i guess from the highlands of Scotland, a solitary shot, very monotone and bleak, the red Supraphon logo giving a dash of colour, the Works / Composer lettering nicely bordering the Loch / beach.
The first movement is the longest, and on this listen the most impressive, Mendelssohn indulges in a long and slow Andante Con Moto introduction, sounding like a serenade, that lasts for over 3 minutes, it starts to speed up [3:20+], but takes another transition minute to fully explode into the full Allegro Un Poco Agitato [4:08+], a nice use of the clarinet comes soon after [4:38-4:47 and again later 7:35-7:43], i like the vibrating strings [10:13-10:27], full of agitated animation, and almost after there's this little oasis of serenade calm [10:45-10:53], a nice breather / refresher from everything surrounding it, and near the end there's these stormy waves from the strings [13:51-14:21], going up and down the scale agitatedly, right at the end the calm of the beginning returns [14:55+], and the movement ends on two soft pizzicato string notes [15:23-15:25], a nice gentle roller coaster of an opening movement.
Here's Roger Norrington conducting the first movement on YouTube.
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