As one German musicologist put it, Mendelssohn's Songs without Words quickly became ''a household possession, as widespread as the Grimm brothers' fairytales, Ludwig Richter's pictures or Uhland's poetry, and no less beloved in England''. Part of their attraction, of course, in pre-radio and pre-gramophone days, was the very modest demands, both technical and emotional, made on the player: music-loving amateurs, no less than celebrities like Clara Schumann (to whom Mendelssohn dedicated the fifth book), could tackle them. So when comparing present-day artists of the calibre of Luba Edlina, perhaps better-known as the pianist of the Borodin Trio, and Livia Rev, differences are bound to be small. On a desert island you could probably be just as happy with either of them in so far as their playing is concerned.
In terms of sound, however, their recordings are not the same. While liking the warmth Rev enjoys from Hyperion, I did think the tone just a bit plummy, at times bottom-heavy too. Without any edginess, Edlina's reproduction is more clearly defined, even on the second of the two discs for which we're told the venue was changed from a hall to a church.
As for the main temperamental difference between the two ladies, I would suggest turning to the well-known ''Fruhlingslied'' (the last of Clara's Op. 62 set). With her slower tempo and less crisply articulated, less transparent, texture, Edlina's approach might be described as Germanic as against Rev's combination of Gallic urbanity and Viennese charm. Others in lighter vein like Op. 67 No. 6 in E or Op. 102 No. 5 in A make the same point. It's even true of the first of Clara's set, an Andante espressivo in G, where Edlina's pursuit of the almost Robert Schumann-like sentiment of the piece is more overt. So very often (though not always) she favours marginally slower tempos than Rev, often with a touch more rubato when trying to make the music speak. But except, perhaps, for the B minor Agitato e con fuoco of Op. 30 No. 3, where speed does result in some loss of finesse, I did prefer Rev's more fluid and elegantly shaped melodic line—as well as several moments of acuter perception in phrasing and shading. Yet that said, how beautifully the more leisurely Edlina responds to the Faure-like pre-echoes of Op. 102 No. 4 in G minor, and the expansive romantic warmth of the first of that same set, written in 1842 in London.
If choice between these two top-price ladies proves difficult, then don't forget Daniel Barenboim, whose immensely characterful and finely reproduced recording of the complete Songs without Words (dating back to 1974) is now available on CD at mid-price—and it includes Mendelssohn's six Kinderstucke, Op. 72 (sometimes known as Christmas Pieces) into the bargain.'