program notes by Dr. Richard E. Rodda

■  When he was 21, Mendelssohn embarked on an extensive grand tour of the Continent. He met Chopin and Liszt in Paris, painted the breathtaking vistas of Oct. 9-10, 2021, page 2 Switzerland, and marveled at the artistic riches (and grumbled about the inhospitable treatment by the coachmen and innkeepers) of Italy. “The land where the lemon trees blossom,” as his friend Goethe described sunny Italy, stirred him so deeply that he began a musical work there in 1831 based on his impressions of Rome, Naples and the other cities he visited. The composition of this “Italian” Symphony, as he always called it, caused him much difficulty, however, and he had trouble bringing all of the movements to completion. “For the slow movement I have not yet found anything exactly right, and I think I must put it off for Naples,” he wrote from Rome to his sister, Fanny. The spur to finish the work was a commission for a symphony from the Philharmonic Society of London that caused Mendelssohn to gather up his sketches and complete the task by 1837.

The “Italian” Symphony is cast in the traditional four movements. The opening movement takes an exuberant, leaping melody initiated by the violins as its principal subject and a quieter, playful strain led by the clarinets as its subsidiary theme. The intricately contrapuntal development section is largely based on a precise, staccato theme of darker emotional hue but also refers to motives from the main theme. A full recapitulation of the exposition’s materials ensues before the movement ends with a coda recalling the staccato theme from the development. The Andante may have been inspired by a religious procession Mendelssohn saw in the streets of Naples. The third movement is in the form of a minuet/scherzo whose central trio utilizes the burnished sonorities of bassoons and horns. The finale turns to a tempestuous minor key for an exuberant dance modeled on a whirling saltarello Mendelssohn heard in Rome. 

©2021 Dr. Richard E. Rodda