Schloss Dahn (near Frankfurt am Main) 1844 by Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
The Bodleian Library, Oxford. MS. M. Deneke Mendelssohn d.4 fol.5
CDA67388
Recording details: January 2003
All Saints' Church, East Finchley, London, United Kingdom
Produced by Mark Brown
Engineered by Julian Millard
Release date: November 2003
DISCID: 390DE61A
Total duration: 57 minutes 9 seconds
'There is much to recommend in this collection. First of all, the songs themselves, some deeper than others, are sweet and forthright, and shown to their best advantage by the equally sweet and forthright playing of Eugene Asti. Displaying a remarkable ease at the keyboard and a deep sense of these pieces, he seems to be the inspiring and unifying force behind the entire enterprise' (Fanfare, USA)
Eugene Asti and his dedicated team of singers present us with an engaging recital of twenty-six songs and duets from the Mendelssohn stable. This collection includes settings of poetry by Goethe, Byron, Heine, Eichendorff and others; twenty songs are by Felix Mendelssohn—whose facility to charm is perfectly exploited in such a medium—with Fanny Mendelssohn demonstrating in the remaining six an extraordinary and striking talent, quite the match of her younger sibling.
The Mendelssohn songs without words may indeed outshine the Lieder in our contemporary consciousness, but here we find domestic bliss in pure musical form.
The first two volumes in this ongoing series have been warmly received around the world.