Walter Weller, where are you when you're needed?
The concert master turned conductor,
Weller was one of the most appealing of the generation of conductors that came of age in the '80s. He had a superb technique, an ear for balances, and a sure hand for phrasing. He knew how to use dynamics to build a climax and he knew how to use tempo relationships to shape a structure. His cycle of
Prokofiev's symphonies for Decca were then and remain still the finest
Prokofiev cycles ever released. But when the classical recording industry imploded in the late '90s,
Weller's recording career imploded with it, and now
Walter Weller is a name rarely heard in the empty halls of the country's few remaining record stores.
Thankfully, Chandos reissued
Weller's cycle of Mendelssohn's symphonies from the early '90s. And they were then and remain still just as fine as his recordings of
Prokofiev's symphonies. Everything he brought to bear on
Prokofiev works just as well on Mendelssohn.
Weller's Mendelssohn is clear as air, but as strong as wind, as rich as the earth and as powerful as fire. And as with
Weller's
Prokofiev, there is no question of the music's greatness. With the superlative playing of London's
Philharmonia,
Weller compels the belief that Mendelssohn was no lesser Schumann, but rather the greatest symphonic composer between Schubert and Brahms. Chandos' early-'90s digital sound is rounder than it had been, not yet as ripe as it would be and just as crisp and clean as it ever was.