With busy, resonant sound and a predilection for slower-than-usual tempos, Reinhard Seifried’s Mendelssohn harks back to Schubertian and Beethovenian models (although the First Symphony’s obvious starting point was Mozart’s big G minor work). The National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland play with enthusiasm, if without the high level of assurance and refinement common to their best rivals from – in particular – London and Leipzig. The First Symphony opens to a fairly powerful Allegro di molto (with repeat) and the third movement’s seraphic trio leads effortlessly back to a vigorous Menuetto. The Reformation Symphony is broader than most, with a nicely suspended opening Andante (the ‘Dresden Amens’ sound especially ethereal), while the finale is fairly boisterous. However, the middle movements strike me as too leisurely for comfort, the Allegro vivace lasting an overly generous 6'56'' (as opposed to, say, Masur’s first recording, which closes at 4'25'') and the Songs without words-style Andante loitering around the poco adagio mark.
In sum, this is a worthily recorded production that, for all its modest strengths, fails to measure up to the high executive standards of Masur (his identically coupled later recording), or – in the context of complete cycles – Abbado (DG, 1/86), Sawallisch (DG, 8/91) and the earlier Masur (RCA, 11/73 and 6/74), the latter two of which are currently available at bargain price.'