Mendelssohn: Symphony No 2 'Lobgesang' - review

"Watchman, will the night soon pass?" asks trenchant tenor Christian Elsner in this fine recording of Mendelssohn's sprawling choral symphony, written in 1840 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Gutenberg's invention of the printing press. Soprano Ruth Ziesak replies: "The night is departed" and the chorus piles in with a contrapuntal celebration of the journey from darkness to light, combining religious fervour with secular recognition that printing encouraged the transition from ignorance to enlightenment. Strong performances from the MDR orchestra and chorus counter Wagner's jealous claim that this was merely a feeble imitation of Beethoven's Ninth.