Mendelssohn himself resisted attempts to interpret the songs too literally, and objected when his friend Marc-André Souchay sought to put words to them to make them literal: “What the music I love expresses to me, is not thought too indefinite to put into words, but on the contrary, too definite”. (Wikipedia)
For (popular) piano works, people LOVE discussing about fav recordings:
(Talk Classical) Any recommended recordings? I bought Barenboim’s set in the early days of CDs. https://www.talkclassical.com/threads/mendelssohn-songs-without-words.60895/
(Reddit) Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words recording recommendations https://www.reddit.com/r/classicalmusic/comments/1oihghp/mendelssohns_songs_without_words_recording/