Composer: born February 3, 1809, Hamburg; died November 4, 1847, Leipzig

Work composed: 1833, rev. 1834

World premiere: Mendelssohn led the Philharmonic Society in London on May 13, 1833

Instrumentation: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani and strings.

Estimated duration: 27 minutes

In 1830-31, Felix Mendelssohn traveled in Italy, spending most of his time in Rome. While there, Mendelssohn wrote several of his best-known works, including the Italian Symphony. Although widely considered the finest of Mendelssohn’s symphonies, the Italian Symphony failed to please its creator. Even after its auspicious premiere, which Mendelssohn conducted to great acclaim in London, the 24-year-old composer was dissatisfied. Ignaz Moscheles, a close friend of Mendelssohn’s, who attended the premiere, noted in his diary, “Mendelssohn was the outstanding success of the concert; he conducted his magnificent A major Symphony and received rapturous applause.” Nonetheless, soon after the premiere, Mendelssohn began making revisions. He continued tinkering with Op. 90 until his death, and observed that the symphony caused him “some of the bitterest moments I have ever endured.” In the end, Mendelssohn’s dissatisfaction with the Italian Symphony led to his refusal to conduct it again, or permit it to be published during his lifetime.

Mendelssohn’s abiding unhappiness over Op. 90 is puzzling; both Moscheles and Mendelssohn’s sister Fanny, a gifted composer herself, praised its form, artful melodies, and overall grace. Unconvinced, Mendelssohn continued revising it, and left a detailed outline of changes he wanted to make to the first three movements. Four years after Mendelssohn’s death, the Italian Symphony was published, albeit without Mendelssohn’s revisions. Since then, audiences have embraced the work, and it is among Mendelssohn’s most popular and most frequently programmed symphonies.

When recalling his trip to Italy, Mendelssohn said, “The whole country had such a festive air that I felt as if I were a young prince making his entry.” The Allegro vivace reflects the relaxed confidence of a young man on the brink of new adventures, as well as the warmth of the Italian sun, the deep blueness of the sky, and the sunny temperament of the Italian people. The mood of the Andante con moto is more introspective; the melody, in a minor key, is supported by pizzicato strings, which provide a walking bass line suggestive of footsteps. Mendelssohn observed a number of Church rituals during his stay in Rome, and this processional quality suggests the solemn rites of a religious ceremony. With the Con moto moderato, Mendelssohn returns to the warmth of the first movement, taming its exuberance into a graceful minuet, accompanied by a trio of winds and brasses. Mendelssohn titled the final movement a saltarello, after an energetic Italian dance. The rapid-fire theme skips nimbly and without pause through the orchestra, first in the winds, then the strings and brasses. The perpetual-motion quality of this music suggests another Italian dance, the tarantella, named for the mistaken Italian belief that immediate exertion would save the victim of a tarantula’s bite from its deadly poison. 

© Elizabeth Schwartz