Sir John Eliot Gardiner, London Symphony Orchestra - Mendelssohn: Symphony 5 "Reformation", Ruy Blas, Meerestille und glückliche Fahrt (2015) [SACD]

‘This is something close to the ideal Gardiner experience: stringent while full of expressive detail, close-focus while still drawing the bigger picture. Partnered by the London Symphony Orchestra at its most lithe & virtuosic, Gardiner makes Mendelssohn’s Ruy Blas overture & Calm Sea & Prosperous Voyage fizz with excitement, while the Symphony No 5, the Reformation, has no room for stolid sermonising as it practically races to the chorale finale, with some remarkable finesse in the dynamics along the way.’
~Niel Fisher The Times, 9th May 2015
‘Like all of Gardiner s live cycles of the Mendelssohn symphonies at the Barbican, this 1 comes across with pace, clarity & flaming-eyed conviction.’
~Richard Fairman The Financial Times, 15th May 2015 ————
‘Gardiner, with consummate thoroughness, has taken a completely fresh & forensic look at the music, &, without doing anything radical, has virtually reinvented the symphony. It blazes anew: it’s as simple & complex, as direct & sophisticated, as that. There’s not a breath, a phrase, a dynamic or a strand in the texture that has not been scrutinised & grilled as to its function, purpose & place in the music. The whole damn thing bursts into flaming life. I know this symphony; or I thought I did. The LSO, here, is the best period band in the world, while the 2 overtures, Ruy Blas & Calm Sea & Prosperous Voyage, are masterpieces still in waiting.’