Mendelssohn as presiding genius of the early romantic era is the theme of Richard Hickox's concerts with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales this season. Linking a Mendelssohn symphony cycle with music by his contemporaries and successors is more worthy than bold. But perhaps Mendelssohn himself is partly to blame. It was, after all, his reverence for the past - particularly in the historical series that he inaugurated at the Leipzig Gewandhaus - that helped establish the retrospective pattern of orchestral concerts that still persists.
His Second Symphony, the Hymn of Praise, was written for the 1840 festival in St Thomas's Church, Leipzig, commemorating the 400th anniversary of the invention of movable type. Mendelssohn chose biblical texts to symbolise man's journey from darkness to enlightenment. The form emulates Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, the spirit it invokes is that of the Bach cantatas and, at its most simple and direct, it has a radiant joy. The BBC National Chorus of Wales was in improved form; even so, they lacked definition in the contrapuntal sections, as did the BBCNOW strings. However, Hickox's propensity for broad gestures and the big effect meant that brass, timpani and organ resounded splendidly. Hickox was also well served by his soloists. Véronique Gens and Pamela Helen Stephen blended judiciously in the duet I Waited on the Lord, and Robert Tear's arias were clear and uplifting.
Schumann celebrated the Goethe centenary of 1849 by setting the scene from his Bildungsroman Wilhelm Meister, in which Mignon the fairy-child dies after pining desperately for her Italian home. Requiem for Mignon is a misty evocation of the ritual gathering around her coffin, the hovering angels who will transport her and the transfiguring power of love. The music presages the beatific consolation of Brahms's German Requiem but, for all its lyricism, Schumann's disposition of chorus, orchestra and soloists is sometimes awkward and the work too insubstantial to create real impact. It was, nevertheless, a valid partner to the Mendelssohn.
Brahms's Academic Festival Overture related little to either work. Not much enlightenment there.
