Isabelle Faust, Freiburger Barockorchester, Pablo Heras-Casado - Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto, Symphony No. 5 (2017) CD-Rip

If what the classical scene needed in late 2017 was a controversial recording, here is one to fill the bill. This is historical-performance Mendelssohn, with period instruments from the Freiburg Barockorchester under Pablo Heras-Casado and a fairly radical reinterpretation of the solo part in the Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64, from violinist Isabelle Faust. This is manifestly not the usual English Mendelssohn, with a rich solo violin sound over a large mass of perfectly coordinated sprite-like strings, and listener reactions are going to be (and indeed have been) all over the map. In the violin concerto Faust, in the trenchant words of writer Jon Sobel, "embroiders the collective sound as if with silver thread." Her interpretation is agile and brilliant at many individual junctures, such as the unexpected mid-movement cadenza in the opening Allegro molto appassionato, but to some ears the melody with which the movement begins may not receive adequate weight from Faust's reedy, vibratoless playing, and in the finale the balance is illogically shifted in the orchestra's favor. The Hebrides, Op. 26, and especially the Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op. 107 ("Reformation"), fare much better, with Heras-Casado's period brasses adding color as well as historical reference to Mendelssohn's quotations of the Lutheran chorale Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott. Sample the opening movement, where the Andante introduction and the main Allegro con fuoco section embody a very lively contrast. Harmonia Mundi also contributes exquisitely realized sound from the Casals Room I at the Barcelona Auditorium. Your reactions may be quite different from those outlined here, and this is a novel Mendelssohn recording that demands to be heard.