The Mendelssohn recording of the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, which has now been released on the Alpha label, includes all five of the composer's symphonies as well as the "Sommernachtstraum". And it also offers an insight into an exciting time for the orchestra and its Music Director Paavo Järvi: the first recordings were made in spring 2021, in the middle of the pandemic, in the interim venue Tonhalle Maag. The last recording was made in January 2023 in the splendidly renovated historic Tonhalle Zürich.
It was no easy task for the recording team led by producer Philip Traugott: the acoustics of the two halls are different, and the live character of the recordings was not the same either. Four symphonies and the "Sommernachtstraum" were recorded under strict distancing rules. The recording of the symphonic cantata "Lobgesang" (officially counted as Symphony No. 2), on the other hand, had to be postponed until it was once again possible to include a choir. In a review of this performance – in which the Zürcher Sing-Akademie, tenor Patrick Grahl and sopranos Chen Reiss and Marie Henriette Reinhold took part - the NZZ wrote of "overwhelming splendour".
The recordings of this Zurich Mendelssohn cycle have never been released individually; the 4-CD box set now presents the project as a whole. "Recording his works is like a dream come true for me", says Paavo Järvi. "A midsummer night's dream come true, so to speak.»
