Felix Mendelssohn lived with a classical spirit in an era that sought to be romantic. Compared to the extravagances and pyrotechnics of the great romantic virtuosos, Mendelssohn seems to champion an intimate, domestic, inward style of pianism, a stranger to all excess.

The programme of Perianes’s new album illustrates four essential qualities of the music of Felix Mendelssohn. Music stripped of all superfluity, including the literary aspect (Songs without Words); a gift for creating magical atmospheres (Rondo Capriccioso); unconditional admiration for classical order; finally, a genuine veneration for Bach (Prelude and fugue op.35). The whole radiant universe of Mendelssohn is encapsulated here.

HMC902195
November 2014