These are both exciting, high-powered performances very typical of Sir Georg. The dazzling qualities of the Chicago orchestra in achieving knife-edged precision of ensemble shine out consistently, and anyone who still thinks that Mendelssohn has Victorian cobwebs on him could hardly find more striking proof otherwise. The performances certainly bring out the exuberance of the inspiration, with the Scottish Symphony made almost as bright and athletic as the Italian, but so soon after Claudio Abbado's new complete DG recording of the symphonies with the LSO (415 353-1GH4; CD 415 353-2GH4, 1/86) and after the comparisons I made then, Solti's view does tend to skate over too many of the magic qualities I cherish most in Mendelssohn. These include the lightness and charm, the easy warmth, the joy and happiness of the inspirations, all of which can be conveyed without letting in the slightest suspicion of sentimentally, as Abbado above all shows on both his old Decca coupling and the new set. I even begin to feel I underestimated the finesse of Abbado's new versions, so much more sympathetic do I find them than Solti's.
Speeds are consistently fast, which allows far less spring to the rhythms than with Abbado, and though I enjoy the brilliance and excitement so far as it goes, one tempo which for me is quite unacceptable is the gallop of a speed for the big 6/8 coda of the finale in the Scottish. In most of what Solti does I am prepared to accept his different point of view, whatever might seem to be missing, but there he strikes me as missing the whole point of the passage—an easy, happy epilogue after the bite and drama of the main A minor Allegro vivacissimo. With Solti the minor-key acid of the main Allegro is very sharp, where with Abbado the lift of the rhythm conveys joy despite the minor key.
Taking direct comparisons in this coupling, I still find the early Abbado most cherishable of all with sound amazingly fresh for its age, but there is no CD version. The Marriner/Argo comes on CD too, but unlike Solti he observes the exposition repeat only in the Italian, not the Scottish, where Solti observes both, making the LP side for the Third a full 40 minutes. It almost seems he speeded up that coda to get it all on one side. The CD is a degree cleaner, and I like the extra banding to separate the introduction and coda of the Scottish, but the sound grows a little congested in the middle in fortissimo tuttis, and the sound for Marriner is richer and more open, two sympathetic, genial performances with just a few touches of waywardness.'