Felix Mendelssohn

   German composer and pianist

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

              Symphony No. 4 in A Major, Op. 90 ("Italian")

                          Allegro vivace

                          Andante con moto

                          Con moto moderato

                          Saltarello:  Presto

In addition to his gifts as a child prodigy, Felix Mendelssohn had the advantage of a wealthy and cultivated family.  No measure was spared to provide the wunderkind with the fullest artistic experience.  Late in his teens he was dispatched on a three-year tour of Europe during which he visited Florence, Rome and Naples, and became enthralled with the great Italian heritage of architecture, painting and sculpture.  His impressions from that journey were soon to provide the 22-year-old composer with the inspiration to fulfill a commission for a new symphony from the Philharmonic Society of London.  Although the work is numbered fourth among Mendelssohn's five symphonies, it was really the third to emerge from his desk.  Subtitled "Italian Symphony," the work was completed in 1833 and revised in 1837.

We note that the Romantic Age in music has a big-time reputation for lusty ideals and brazen musical statements, especially after the power-stroke premiere of Berlioz' Symphonie fantastique in 1830.  However, Mendelssohn's scores are balanced with equal measures of classicism and romantic lyricism, imbued with lovely, suggestive melodies, rich tonalities and meticulous refinement.  Moreover, his orchestral works enjoyed an enviable popularity throughout his short life, as did his reputation as a keyboard artist.  Hector Berlioz eagerly wrote:  "Mendelssohn's gift as a performing artist is as great as his genius as a composer...I strongly believe him to be one of the finest musical talents of our age."

With regard to the "Italian" nature of the A Major symphony, the associations that can be drawn are, for the most part, remotely subjective.  Stylistically the work is clearly on-line wtih the classical traditions inherited via Haydn to Mozart to Beethoven to Schubert.  But the writing here has a wonderful, breezy feel, virtuosic to a degree, but light and effervescent in tone.  The first movement is hardy and bright, followed by the lovely Andante, believed to have been inspired by the composer's recollection of a pilgrim's procession in Naples.  The minuet-styled third movement contains momentary flash-backs to the motif of the Overture to a Midsummer Night's Dream, which Mendelssohn wrote when he was all of 17 years old.

Finally, for a clear Italian connection, we have the fourth movement Saltarello, a racing Roman dance which transpires into a tripleted tarantella.  The fleet virtuosity required from the orchestral strings and winds provides one of the most transparent and difficult movements in the classical repertoire.  Never mind the technical challenge, it is buoyant Neapolitan fun all the way.

program notes by Edward Yadzinsky