Niklas Liepe: Mendelssohn

The Strad Issue: August 2025

Description: A saccharine approach does Mendelssohn few favours

Musicians: Niklas Liepe (violin) Nils Liepe (piano) NDR Radiophilharmonie/Joseph Bastian

Works: Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E minor; works by Christl, Handel and Igudesman

Catalogue number: SONY CLASSICAL G010005234774C

‘What if Handel and Mendelssohn were composing today? What if their timeless melodies could merge with modern sounds?’ This is the question behind violinist Niklas Liepe’s concept for his ‘musical journey that combines modernity in a way that not only moves but also challenges’. It consists of arrangements of three of Handel’s most famous works, topped by an arrangement of the main theme of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, and ending with a reinterpretation of the concerto itself.

The answer to that starter question turns out to be ‘broken chords’ – sometimes chugging away, minimalism-style, sometimes rippling – and a simplified, often sentimentalised harmonic language straight out of the feel-good movie soundtrack playbook. Aleksey Igudesman’s eastern folk music-y Peace-acaglia has a more spice, but it’s played a bit smooth and straight.

Liepe’s expressed aim in the concerto is to eschew ‘just another recording of this masterpiece’ and ‘sentimental romance’, in favour of finding ‘the original character of the piece… to showcase the emotional depth’. He doesn’t expound on exactly how previous romanticised interpretations lose the concerto’s original character, but the smoothed-out, pumped-up result, featuring gentle and polished playing from portamento-rich Liepe and the orchestra, feels in fact slightly emotionally distant.

CHARLOTTE GARDNER