Post by erik on Jan 15, 2023 0:48:57 GMT -5
Felix Mendelssohn is in this second Classical Works Spotlight of 2023 with his symphonic impressions of Scotland.
Mendelssohn: SYMPHONY NO. 3 IN A MINOR, OP. 56 (SCOTTISH)
While his life was only slightly longer in duration than Mozart or Schubert, Felix Mendelssohn was every bit the young wunderkind as his two predecessors in the Austro-German music world. Indeed, at least two of his five major symphonies are full of beautiful and vivid impressions. The first of these is his Third Symphony, known alternately as either the “Scottish” or “Scotch” Symphony. It is known by that name for being inspired by a trip that Mendelssohn made to the northern and western coasts of Scotland in 1828, a trip that was also to inspire his famous “Hebrides Overture”. The work’s vivid impressions of Scotland’s North Sea and Atlantic coastlines are rendered with a somewhat somber and overcast look in the opening measures of the first movement, which is established by the work’s home key in A Minor. The second movement, a Scherzo in all but name and in F Major, seems to take its inspiration from the regional sea shanties of Scotland; while the third movement, a slow movement in A Major, depicting an ongoing struggle between Love and Fate. The finale returns to the stark impressions of the opening movement, again in A Minor, though it slows down towards the climax; and then it gives us a brighter, sunlit coda in A Major, presaging this symphony’s companion piece, the Fourth Symphony (forever known as the Italian Symphony). Though Mendelssohn revised the work over a period of thirteen years, the Scottish Symphony got its first performance, under the composer’s direction, in March 1842 with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Mendelssohn’s fellow composer Robert Schumann found much to love about it, though some 20th century critics (and even conductors like Otto Klemperer) scoffed at the work’s optimistic ending. It nevertheless remains among the most popular of all post-Beethoven symphonies of the 19th century.
San Francisco Symphony Orchestra/HERBERT BLOMSTEDT (London/Decca)
Included:
SYMPHONY NO. 4 IN A MAJOR, OP. 90 (ITALIAN)
Mendelssohn: SYMPHONY NO. 3 IN A MINOR, OP. 56 (SCOTTISH)
While his life was only slightly longer in duration than Mozart or Schubert, Felix Mendelssohn was every bit the young wunderkind as his two predecessors in the Austro-German music world. Indeed, at least two of his five major symphonies are full of beautiful and vivid impressions. The first of these is his Third Symphony, known alternately as either the “Scottish” or “Scotch” Symphony. It is known by that name for being inspired by a trip that Mendelssohn made to the northern and western coasts of Scotland in 1828, a trip that was also to inspire his famous “Hebrides Overture”. The work’s vivid impressions of Scotland’s North Sea and Atlantic coastlines are rendered with a somewhat somber and overcast look in the opening measures of the first movement, which is established by the work’s home key in A Minor. The second movement, a Scherzo in all but name and in F Major, seems to take its inspiration from the regional sea shanties of Scotland; while the third movement, a slow movement in A Major, depicting an ongoing struggle between Love and Fate. The finale returns to the stark impressions of the opening movement, again in A Minor, though it slows down towards the climax; and then it gives us a brighter, sunlit coda in A Major, presaging this symphony’s companion piece, the Fourth Symphony (forever known as the Italian Symphony). Though Mendelssohn revised the work over a period of thirteen years, the Scottish Symphony got its first performance, under the composer’s direction, in March 1842 with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Mendelssohn’s fellow composer Robert Schumann found much to love about it, though some 20th century critics (and even conductors like Otto Klemperer) scoffed at the work’s optimistic ending. It nevertheless remains among the most popular of all post-Beethoven symphonies of the 19th century.
San Francisco Symphony Orchestra/HERBERT BLOMSTEDT (London/Decca)
Included:
SYMPHONY NO. 4 IN A MAJOR, OP. 90 (ITALIAN)