On 22 March, the Mendelssohn cycle with Paavo Järvi and the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich will be released in a 4-CD box set. It is already available digitally on the usual platforms. It includes all five symphonies and the "Midsummer Night's Dream" and was recorded in 2021.
The cycle concluded in January 2023 with Felix Mendelssohn's rarely performed symphonic cantata "Lobgesang", which is often counted as Symphony No. 2: An unusual work for orchestra, choir and soloists, which we are now also publishing in a video recording. After the concert, the NZZ sang the praises of the performance, in which "the radiance and glow of the music does not fade for a moment". In addition to Paavo Järvi and the orchestra, the Zürcher Sing-Akademie prepared by Florian Helgath, the sopranos Chen Reiss and Marie Henriette Reinhold and the tenor Patrick Grahl also made a decisive contribution.
The "Lobgesang" was commissioned by the Leipzig City Council in 1840 to celebrate 400 years of the art of printing. Johannes Gutenberg's invention had not least enabled the dissemination of Martin Luther's writings and thus the Reformation. This is another reason why the converted Protestant Mendelssohn chose a combination of quotes from Luther's translation of the Bible and the hymn "Nun danket alle Gott" as the text.
Chen Reiss reveals even more about this performance in another video: with answers to 15 questions.
