Symphony No. 3 (“Scottish”) in A minor, Opus 56 composed 1829-42
At a Glance
by
Felix
MENDELSSOHN born February 3, 1809 Hamburg died November 4, 1847 Leipzig
Severance Hall 2018-19
Mendelssohn conceived the opening theme for this symphony while visiting the Holyrood Palace in Scotland in August 1829. He sketched out a plan for a full-length “Scottish” Symphony in 1830, and then worked on it sporadically over the next decade. He returned to it in 1841 and worked steadily on it throughout much of the year, completing the score in Berlin in early 1842. The first performance took place on March 3, 1842, at the Leipzig Gewandhaus, under the composer’s direction. Although Mendelssohn often referred privately to this work as his “Scottish” Symphony, it was first
presented and published without any such title. The score was published in 1842 with a dedication to Queen Victoria of England. This symphony runs about 35 minutes in performance. Mendelssohn scored it for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, and strings. The Cleveland Orchestra first performed Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 3 in November 1935, under Artur Rodzinski’s direction. The most recent performances were in November 2017, led by then-concertmaster William Preucil.
About the Music f e l i x m e n d e l sso h n ’s reputation as a composer has undergone a steadily evolving course over the past century and a half. Upon his early death in 1847 — aged only 38 years — he was hailed as one of world’s greatest music practitioners. He was an accomplished pianist, an extraordinarily gifted organist, a celebrated composer, and one of the first great conductors. Add to these his keen interest in science and literature, his ability to draw and paint, and his well-practiced skills for entertaining and socializing — Mendelssohn was very much a quintessential renaissance man of the Romantic era. The next hundred years, however, saw his reputation tarnish and fade, and much of his music was all but forgotten. The German supremacist composer Richard Wagner began a violent attack — on Mendelssohn’s music (and family origins) — as early as 1850. Changing tastes and lush “new” music often made Mendelssohn’s pieces seem quaintly out of step. Only in the past fifty years or so, with more thoughtful and objective studying of Mendelssohn’s work and contributions to 19th-century music, have the depth and range of his art begun to shine anew. Born into a well-to-do German family (his father and uncle were bankers, his grandfather a famous Jewish philosopher), Felix’s early abilities at the piano and as a composer echoed so
About the Music
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