Hartford Symphony Orchestra - Mozart & Mendelssohn - Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Op. 56, “Scottish” (1841-1842)

Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Op. 56, “Scottish” (1841-1842)

Felix Mendelssohn |Born February 3, 1809 in Hamburg. Died November 4, 1847 in Leipzig

World Premiere: March 3, 1842
Last HSO Performance: January 21, 2018
Instrumentation: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani and strings
Duration: 43 minutes

At age twenty, Felix Mendelssohn was a wonder. He was one of Europe’s best composers, an excellent pianist, a path-breaking conductor and a visual artist of nearly professional capability, as well as a man of immense charm and personality. It is not surprising that his first appearances in London in the spring and summer of 1829 were a smashing success. Both to relax from his hectic London schedule and to temporarily sate his obsession with travel, he decided to tour the British countryside late that summer. He settled on a walking tour through the Scottish Highlands and arrived in Edinburgh on July 28th.

In a letter recounting the experiences of his first day in the Scottish capital, Mendelssohn wrote, “Everything here looks so stern and robust, half enveloped in a haze of smoke or fog. Many Highlanders came in costume from church victoriously leading their sweethearts in their Sunday attire and casting magnificent and important looks over the world; with long, red beards, tartan plaids, bonnets and feathers and naked knees and their bagpipes in their hands, they passed along by the half-ruined gray castle on the meadow where Mary Stuart lived in splendor.” Two days later, he reported on his visit to Mary’s castle, Holyrood: “In the evening twilight I went to the palace where Mary lived and loved.... Everything is broken and moldering and the bright sky shines in. I believe I have found today in that old chapel the beginning of my Scottish symphony.” Then follow ten measures of music that were to become the introductory melody of the Third Symphony. Despite its initial inspiration, the “Scottish” Symphony did not come easily. Some preliminary sketches for it were done in 1830, while he was touring Italy, but he admitted that he found it impossible to evoke the “misty mood” of Scotland while in sun-splashed Rome. He put the work aside, and did not finish it until 1842 in Berlin.

The four movements of the “Scottish” Symphony are directed to be played without pause. The long, brooding introduction opens with a grave harmonization of the melody that Mendelssohn conceived at Holyrood. The sonata form proper begins with a flowing theme, graceful yet filled with vigor. Other melodic inspirations follow. A stormy, thoroughly worked-out development utilizes most of the exposition’s thematic material. After the recapitulation, a coda with the force of a second development section is concluded by a return of the brooding theme of the introduction. The second movement is the only one that consistently shows sunlight and high spirits. It is built around two melodies: one, skipping and animated, is introduced by the clarinet; the other, brisk and martial, is presented in the strings. The wonderful third movement is cast in sonata form: its first theme is a lyrical melody of noble gait that is perfectly balanced by the elegiac second theme, characterized by its heroic, dotted rhythms. The finale is a vivacious and well-developed dance in an atmospheric minor key. The “Scottish” Symphony concludes with a majestic coda in a broad, swinging meter.