“There has never been in the history of music a child prodigy to equal Mendelssohn,” pianist and author Charles Rosen once wrote. “As a teenager, he was a much better composer than either Beethoven or Mozart at the same age.” And yet, as Rosen continues, “Mendelssohn’s precocity was a curse as well as a gift. Because of it, he never matched the extravagance of his greater contemporaries.”

That may be true. Though what does extravagance have to do with genius? Anyway, as those of us who love Felix Mendelssohn’s music know, there’s a lot more to admire in his substantial oeuvre than those great masterpieces of his teenage years, the Octet and the Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the Violin Concerto and maybe some of the Songs Without Words. Like the five symphonies, for instance, which achieve a startling unity and variety within single works and in relation to each other through Mendelssohn elegantly working out the implications of existing models.

The First wears its debt to Mozart on its sleeve but is impeccably crafted and exhilarating to listen to. The Second, the extraordinary symphony-cantata known as the Hymn of Praise, seeks to reconcile the Baroque cantata and oratorio of JS Bach and Handel with the Romantic innovations of Beethoven’s Choral Symphony.

The Third and Fourth symphonies, the “Scottish” and the “Italian” respectively, combine the impish Classicism of Mozart with the drama and more programmatic elements of Beethoven. The mighty Fifth Symphony, the “Reformation”, is all but a choral symphony without words that also recalls Haydn’s brand of Sturm und Drang.

Mendelssohn’s symphonies have always been considered somehow inferior to those of Mozart, Beethoven and even Brahms. Not that they haven’t received their fair share of committed performances and recordings over the years, particularly the “Scottish” and the “Italian”. A good example is Nikolaus Harnoncourt’s superb 2004 recording of the Third and Fourth Symphonies with the same band, if not the same lineup, that Yannick Nézet-Séguin has at his disposal.

Energised by that passionate advocacy he demonstrates in his account of Robert Schumann’s similarly oft-maligned four symphonies, Nézet-Séguin together with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe deliver on all fronts in these live recordings, seizing especially on that drama generated by Mendelssohn’s gift for contrasting suave melodies and rapid figurations in the strings with rich, full harmonies and muscular rhythmic motives in the winds and percussion. Extravagance? No. Ecstatic? Yes.

Limelight subscriptions start from $4 per month, with savings of up to 50% when you subscribe for longer.