When one puts a CD into the player, one does not generally think about how old the composer was whose music sounds forth from the loudspeakers. After all, Richard Strauss committed his highly romantic and sensitive “Four Last Lieder” to paper at the venerable age of 84. But one is indeed astonished to realise that Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy was barely thirteen when he wrote an extended Magnificat and set the litany of “Kyrie eleison – Lord have Mercy!” Of course, these youthful works of Mendelssohn - recorded by the Leipzig GewandhausChor on the new GENUIN CD with a wonderfully lean sound and exemplary diction - are still clearly marked by models of the past. But the opening movement of the Magnificat is just as festive and joyous as that of a work by Joseph Haydn, the “Kyrie” is imploring and timelessly touching and the String Symphony in E minor, played furioso by members of the Gewandhausorchester who are also heard supporting their choir on this album, is pointed and full of edginess. Whoever wishes to become acquainted with a prodigy composer has the perfect opportunity of doing so with this album – or whoever simply wishes to hear good, moving music.