Mendelssohn: Symphonies Nos. 4 and 5 (CD review)

Charles Munch, Boston Symphony Orchestra. United Classics T2CD2013009.

In the first decade of the home-stereo era, the mid Fifties through early Sixties, RCA made a series of celebrated recordings with Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony, Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops, and Charles Munch and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, among others. The recordings were so good and became so popular, they’re still available in a variety of formats today. The RCA Munch recording of the Mendelssohn Fourth and Fifth Symphonies under review appeared originally on LP in 1958, then on CD and SACD from RCA, on XRCD from JVC, and now on disc from United Classics. No matter how you play it, the Fourth, especially, is a wonderful performance.

Of course, there is hardly a lack of good Mendelssohn Fourths available these days (Abbado, Blomstedt, Sinopoli, and Klemperer among my own favorites), but Munch’s was doubtless one of the earliest great stereo versions and one of my first recollections of the piece. Coupled with an equally good Mendelssohn Fifth Symphony from a year earlier, the album makes an easy recommendation, particularly when you can buy it at so reasonable a price.

Munch’s interpretation of the Symphony No. 4 in A major, Op. 90Italianhas all the forward drive you could want, with plenty of adrenaline flowing in the famous first movement. Munch begins the symphony with a thrilling surging of pace that get the blood racing like few other conductors in this work. When the second subject arrives, it does so under Munch in a sweet, graceful arch, returning to a variation on the opening. Then he takes the Andante briskly, almost to avoid any major contrast with the opening movement. It's not exactly the "slow march" we usually hear. The third movement is a kind of minuet that Munch has a little fun with. Finally, Mendelssohn said of the Fourth that he thought it was the "jolliest" of his works, and the final Presto (based on an exuberant Neapolitan dance) proves it, with Munch bouncing it around for all it's worth. You'll hardly find a better, more-spirited performance no matter what the cost or age.

What surprised me, though, was how much I liked the accompanying Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op. 107Reformation.” I don’t suppose it should have surprised me; it’s a splendid piece of music. I just keep thinking of it in terms of its slow, heavy opening movement rather than its superbly light second-movement Allegro, a movement that suggests the “Scottish” Symphony in its delightful, folksy simplicity. Mendelssohn actually composed his Fifth Symphony a year or so before his Fourth; however, he wasn't too keen on it and dismissed it out of hand. Nobody heard the music again until some twenty years after the composer's death.

Anyway, after a fairly grave first movement, the second-movement Allegro vivace dances merrily along, reminding us this is, indeed, Mendelssohn. And again Munch makes the most of it. The work concludes with a Finale quoting Luther's "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God," which Munch handles with appropriate dignity and splendor.

I’ve owned this recording for several years now on a JVC XRCD remastering that costs a small fortune to buy, and I find it slightly but significantly more dynamic and better defined than the standard RCA product. This United Classics edition is not quite up the JVC standards, either, but it still sounds plenty good.

Like other RCA Munch recordings of the Fifties, there are things to like about the sound and things maybe not to like. It is an exceptionally realistic recording, with plenty of clarity in the midrange and treble and some solid, well-defined bass. On the minus side, it can also be a tad hard and bright in places. And like many of RCA’s “Living Stereo” recordings of the time, there is almost too wide a stereo spread.

The recording’s sound is fine in any format, but on this United Classics disc we hear what may be a bit more noise suppression than on the JVC disc. The sonics are very smooth, with the noise reduction having little effect on the high-end extension. A quick switch to the JVC, however, reveals the newer product displaying some slight loss of detail, definition, and focus. Nevertheless, if you don't have the JVC disc for comparison, the United Classics sound (or the RCA) is still good and surely belies its fifty-odd years.

Certainly, United Classics have priced this edition of the recording right. I noticed a number of retail outlets on-line offering it new for well under ten bucks, making it hard to resist.

To listen to a brief excerpt from this album, click here:

JJP

Meet the Staff

Meet the Staff
John J. Puccio, Founder and Contributor

Understand, I'm just an everyday guy reacting to something I love. And I've been doing it for a very long time, my appreciation for classical music starting with the musical excerpts on the Big Jon and Sparkie radio show in the early Fifties and the purchase of my first recording, The 101 Strings Play the Classics, around 1956. In the late Sixties I began teaching high school English and Film Studies as well as becoming interested in hi-fi, my audio ambitions graduating me from a pair of AR-3 speakers to the Fulton J's recommended by The Stereophile's J. Gordon Holt. In the early Seventies, I began writing for a number of audio magazines, including Audio Excellence, Audio Forum, The Boston Audio Society Speaker, The American Record Guide, and from 1976 until 2008, The $ensible Sound, for which I served as Classical Music Editor.

Today, I'm retired from teaching and use a pair of bi-amped VMPS RM40s loudspeakers for my listening. In addition to writing for the Classical Candor blog, I served as the Movie Review Editor for the Web site Movie Metropolis (formerly DVDTown) from 1997-2013. Music and movies. Life couldn't be better.

Karl Nehring, Editor and Contributor

For more than 20 years I was the editor of The $ensible Sound magazine and a regular contributor to both its equipment and recordings review pages. I would not presume to present myself as some sort of expert on music, but I have a deep love for and appreciation of many types of music, "classical" especially, and have listened to thousands of recordings over the years, many of which still line the walls of my listening room (and occasionally spill onto the furniture and floor, much to the chagrin of my long-suffering wife). I have always taken the approach as a reviewer that what I am trying to do is simply to point out to readers that I have come across a recording that I have found of interest, a recording that I think they might appreciate my having pointed out to them. I suppose that sounds a bit simple-minded, but I know I appreciate reading reviews by others that do the same for me — point out recordings that they think I might enjoy.

For readers who might be wondering about what kind of system I am using to do my listening, I should probably point out that I do a LOT of music listening and employ a variety of means to do so in a variety of environments, as I would imagine many music lovers also do. Starting at the more grandiose end of the scale, the system in which I do my most serious listening comprises Marantz CD 6007 and Onkyo CD 7030 CD players, NAD C 658 streaming preamp/DAC, Legacy Audio PowerBloc2 amplifier, and a pair of Legacy Audio Focus SE loudspeakers. I occasionally do some listening through pair of Sennheiser 560S headphones. I miss the excellent ELS Studio sound system in our 2016 Acura RDX (now my wife's daily driver) on which I had ripped more than a hundred favorite CDs to the hard drive, so now when driving my 2022 Accord EX-L Hybrid I stream music from my phone through its adequate but not outstanding factory system. For more casual listening at home when I am not in my listening room, I often stream music through the phone into a Vizio soundbar system that has tolerably nice sound for such a diminutive physical presence. And finally, at the least grandiose end of the scale, I have an Ultimate Ears Wonderboom II Bluetooth speaker for those occasions where I am somewhere by myself without a sound system but in desperate need of a musical fix. I just can’t imagine life without music and I am humbly grateful for the technology that enables us to enjoy it in so many wonderful ways.

William (Bill) Heck, Webmaster and Contributor

Among my early childhood memories are those of listening to my mother playing records (some even 78 rpm ones!) of both classical music and jazz tunes. I suppose that her love of music was transmitted genetically, and my interest was sustained by years of playing in rock bands – until I realized that this was no way to make a living. The interest in classical music was rekindled in grad school when the university FM station serving as background music for studying happened to play the Brahms First Symphony. As the work came to an end, it struck me forcibly that this was the most beautiful thing I had ever heard, and from that point on, I never looked back. This revelation was to the detriment of my studies, as I subsequently spent way too much time simply listening, but music has remained a significant part of my life. These days, although I still can tell a trumpet from a bassoon and a quarter note from a treble clef, I have to admit that I remain a nonexpert. But I do love music in general and classical music in particular, and I enjoy sharing both information and opinions about it.

The audiophile bug bit about the same time that I returned to classical music. I’ve gone through plenty of equipment, brands from Audio Research to Yamaha, and the best of it has opened new audio insights. Along the way, I reviewed components, and occasionally recordings, for The $ensible Sound magazine. Most recently I’ve moved to my “ultimate system” consisting of a BlueSound Node streamer, an ancient Toshiba multi-format disk player serving as a CD transport, Legacy Wavelet II DAC/preamp/crossover, dual Legacy PowerBloc2 amps, and Legacy Signature SE speakers (biamped), all connected with decently made, no-frills cables. With the arrival of CD and higher resolution streaming, that is now the source for most of my listening.

Ryan Ross, Contributor

I started listening to and studying classical music in earnest nearly three decades ago. This interest grew naturally out of my training as a pianist. I am now a musicologist by profession, specializing in British and other symphonic music of the 19th and 20th centuries. My scholarly work has been published in major music journals, as well as in other outlets. Current research focuses include twentieth-century symphonic historiography, and the music of Jean Sibelius, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Malcolm Arnold.

I am honored to contribute writings to Classical Candor. In an age where the classical recording industry is being subjected to such profound pressures and changes, it is more important than ever for those of us steeped in this cultural tradition to continue to foster its love and exposure. I hope that my readers can find value, no matter how modest, in what I offer here.


Bryan Geyer, Technical Analyst

I initially embraced classical music in 1954 when I mistuned my car radio and heard the Heifetz recording of Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto. That inspired me to board the new "hi-fi" DIY bandwagon. In 1957 I joined one of the pioneer semiconductor makers and spent the next 32 years marketing transistors and microcircuits to military contractors. Home audio DIY projects remained a personal passion until 1989 when we created our own new photography equipment company. I later (2012) revived my interest in two channel audio when we "downsized" our life and determined that mini-monitors + paired subwoofers were a great way to mate fine music with the space constraints of condo living.

Visitors that view my technical papers on this site may wonder why they appear here, rather than on a site that features audio equipment reviews. My reason is that I tried the latter, and prefer to publish for people who actually want to listen to music; not to equipment. My focus is in describing what's technically beneficial to assure that the sound of the system will accurately replicate the source input signal (i. e. exhibit high accuracy) without inordinate cost and complexity. Conversely, most of the audiophiles of today strive to achieve sound that's euphonic, i.e. be personally satisfying. In essence, audiophiles seek sound that's consistent with their desire; the music is simply a test signal.

Mission Statement

It is the goal of Classical Candor to promote the enjoyment of classical music. Other forms of music come and go--minuets, waltzes, ragtime, blues, jazz, bebop, country-western, rock-'n'-roll, heavy metal, rap, and the rest--but classical music has been around for hundreds of years and will continue to be around for hundreds more. It's no accident that every major city in the world has one or more symphony orchestras.

When I was young, I heard it said that only intellectuals could appreciate classical music, that it required dedicated concentration to appreciate. Nonsense. I'm no intellectual, and I've always loved classical music. Anyone who's ever seen and enjoyed Disney's Fantasia or a Looney Tunes cartoon playing Rossini's William Tell Overture or Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 can attest to the power and joy of classical music, and that's just about everybody.

So, if Classical Candor can expand one's awareness of classical music and bring more joy to one's life, more power to it. It's done its job. --John J. Puccio

Contact Information

Readers with polite, courteous, helpful letters may send them to classicalcandor@gmail.com

Readers with impolite, discourteous, bitchy, whining, complaining, nasty, mean-spirited, unhelpful letters may send them to classicalcandor@recycle.bin.

"Their Master's Voice" by Michael Sowa

"Their Master's Voice" by Michael Sowa