Romantic Visions and Midsummer Dreams
Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra
Rachael Beesley, conductor
ARCO CD 004
*****
The Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra have just released internationally their fourth CD and it’s an absolute cracker.
Entitled Romantic Visions and Midsummer Dreams, it showcases the essence of romanticism, especially in Beethoven’s 8th Symphony which, though displaying all the old classical forms, is peppered with elements of the then nascent romantic movement. The CD opens with Felix Mendelssohn’s ever popular overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a small masterpiece from a composer who was still not out of his teenage years. Composed in the key of E minor, apparently the key recognised as that of the fairy world, the ARCO imbues it with all the lightness and gaiety that the work deserves. Beethoven’s Symphony No 8 in F major follows. Written in 1812 by a very deaf Beethoven, the work sits on the cusp of the classical/romantic divide and as I’ve said, maybe classical in form, but Beethoven’s continual surprise distortions heralds the romantic world to come. The final work in this brilliant concert is again one of Mendelssohn’s, his Symphony No 3 in A minor, known as the Scottish.
The work got its nickname from the second movement scherzo which is based on Scottish tunes which Mendelssohn heard on a visit to the British Isles in 1829. Odd that, considering that Mendelssohn had been quoted as saying that such tunes gave him a toothache!
Conducting from the violin, Rachel Beesley ensures that the orchestra keeps up a lively tempo throughout, before descending into the slumbersome, and slightly sad, adagio of the third movement, then finally exploding in the unusually powerful final movement. This recording can rightly take its place among the best on offer and is yet another feather in ARCO’s cap.
Michael Morton-Evans