Recent recordings by Edward Gardner and Thomas Dausgaard are giving Mendelssohn a fine new lease of life on modern instruments. Now comes a period-instrument riposte with this extremely lively and incisive account of the Scottish and Italian symphonies by the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra. Although the composer didn’t approve of the national nicknames, there’s a clear presence of folk music inspiration in the bucolic Scottish Scherzo in No 3 and the Neapolitan saltarello Finale of No 4. The edgy textures work well in these movements; elsewhere, Pablo Heras-Casado drives the music very hard, so the effect is too brittle, without any of the relaxing charm that makes Mendelssohn smile.
