Felix Mendelssohn took full advantage of the opportunities that came with being the grandson of a famous philosopher and the son of an extraordinarily wealthy banker. This was a child who celebrated his 12th birthday with a private performance of his first musical, in a fully staged production at his house in Berlin, featuring members of the royal orchestra!

At the age of 20, Felix Mendelssohn performed a typical rite of passage for well-heeled young men, embarking on a “grand tour” of Europe. On August 7, 1829, he reached the Hebrides Islands off the western coast of Scotland, where the scenery inspired him to scribble a few phrases of music into a letter sent home to Berlin. His boat voyage the next day to the famous Fingal’s Cave provided additional fodder for a new work he began plotting.

After continuing on to Rome, Mendelssohn fashioned his Hebrides sketch into a concert overture as a birthday present for his father, under the original title of Lonely Island. He tinkered with the score and the title several more times—various drafts were known as “The Isles of Fingal,” “Fingal’s Cave,” and “The Hebrides”—until he signed off on a definitive version in 1832. His very first sketch remained in place as the overture’s nucleus, as heard in the rocking, wave-like cascades that appear in the opening measures.

Piccolo, two flutes, two clarinets, E-flat clarinet, bass clarinet, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, strings