Routine Trundle

Another BBC Music mag offering, this one shows the passing of time since it was an introduction to the then newly appointed chief conductor to the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Ilan Volkov, whose term is now winding towards its' end. To be honest, this is a perfectly competant but somewhat routine trundle through mainstream classical repertoire. The disk commences with Die Schone Melusine Overture by Mendelssohn, features Haydn's Symphony No 46 and concludes with Schubert's Symphony No 3. Such pieces are more often heard in some kind of period performance these days, particularly Haydn, but here we get a modern day symphony orchestra approach. A nice enough disk to have, especially since it is essentially a freebie, but not one I would return to as often as many others from the same source. The Haydn is the strongest piece here and shows the invention that many of his symphonies have and that tends to be overlooked given the number that he came up with through his long career. Schubert was still working towards mastery of the symphonic form at the time of his third, written in a year when he was most prolific in his real forte, that of the song.