Bob Kasenchak requested:

>My Boss' Boss' Boss' Boss wants a reccomendation of Mendelssohn's 5th.  He
>likes the 3rd-4th with Blomstedt & San Francisco, but apparently Bl.  never
>recorded #5.  Who can help me out with a like performance I can reccomend
>to him (seeming very knowledgable in the process)?

I would like to recommend Bernstein (Sony 47591) in this work.  IMHO it's
Mendelssohn's worst symphony; ponderous, pretentious, turgid, dull.  Word
has it Mendelssohn himself would've preferred it destroyed; his memory
would likely had been better served if so.  The 5th is remarkable only in
that it makes use of the "Dresden Amen", as would Wagner in "Parsifal" some
five decades later.  However, Bernstein brings to this work the gravity and
solemnity it needs to make it bearable, although barely so for these ears.
You're best off to advise your many times removed boss to explore the
Octet, "Fingal's Cave", "Italian" Symphony or "Elijah" to discover what
Mendelssohn really has to offer.

Uncle Dave Lewis
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