A reissue of the Brilliant Classics complete Mendelssohn Symphonies, featuring some of the best possible performances: the 5 “big” symphonies are performed by the excellent Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Wolfgang Sawallisch (a Mendelssohn specialist).

Felix Mendelssohn was a child prodigy of an altogether different order. True, the child Mozart wrote an astonishing amount of fluent, superbly constructed music at a very early age, but his compositional skills developed as he matured, and none of his early works rate among his greatest. By contrast, Mendelssohn would produce many of his first masterpieces at the age of 16. Prior to that, he displayed a precociousness that still amazes to this day.

The 13 early String Symphonies, the first six of which were written when the composer was just 12 years old, are performed here by the Amsterdam Sinfonietta and Lev Markiz, and give a unique insight into the composer’s already impressive skill as a symphonist, revealing an early appreciation of Bach and Handel.

The development of this skill can be traced through the mature symphonies, which are also presented in this collection. The Symphony No.1, written when the composer was just 15, is a finely wrought work that displays a sound knowledge of Mozart and Haydn, while the Symphony No.5 (actually the second in order of composition) is often highly underrated, as this fine recording demonstrates.