Here is a top contender among the increasing number of discs devoted to Mendelssohn’s six organ sonatas Op. 65. Although the Buckingham Palace Ballroom’s 1818 Lincoln organ (restored in 2002) is relatively small and less colorful in comparison with the German Bucholz instruments featured in Susan Landale’s 2008 cycle for the Calliope label, it sounds far more vibrant due to the immediacy and detail captured by Chandos’ engineers. The superior textural and contrapuntal clarity (particularly telling in the fugues) also can be attributed to organist William Whitehead’s clean finger and footwork and his straightforward musicianship. Memorable details abound.
For example, Whitehead favors a more animated, less severe approach to the slow tempo of the Second sonata’s first movement, while shaping the Allegro maestoso and the Third sonata’s first movement with exactly the right proportions of pomp and thrust. Extraneous mechanical noises persist in the Sixth sonata’s finale; one wonders why.
For those who are willing to invest in a two-disc set containing all of Mendelssohn’s organ music, Hans Fagius’ BIS edition offers comparable musicianship and a more sumptuous instrument. I also hope that Universal Classics someday will reissue Roger Fisher’s magnificent late-1970s recordings for L’Oiseau-Lyre on CD. That said, Whitehead’s Mendelssohn cycle holds a high position among the many discs released in 2009 to celebrate the composer’s 200th birthday year, and his superb booklet notes discuss the music within the context of its time. [9/21/2009]
