Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Charles Mackerras - Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 4 'Italian' & A Midsummer Night's Dream / Ein Sommernachtstraum (1988)

If there is one Mendelssohn symphonic recording that makes the case for a more favorable reassessment [of the composer], it's this pairing of the Italian Symphony and some of the Midsummer Night's Dream music by Sir Charles Mackerras…. The clarity of texture here [in the Symphony] is extraordinary, even when the brass and winds add their clout. As a result, every line of Mendelssohn's orchestration comes through clearly, leaving a listener with a renewed respect for this composer's inventiveness…. The Midsummer Night's Dream music is even more miraculous…. The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment offers the best movements of the incidental score, and it plays them with the same combination of transparency and ebullience that it brings to the symphony.