NOR59 Orchestra
The FeelHarmony Orchestra
Stefan Plewniak – violin solo & conductor
Mendelssohn – Italian Symphony no 4 op 90
Italian Symphony, byname of Symphony No. 4 in A Major, Op. 90, orchestral work by Felix Mendelssohn, so named because it was intended to evoke the sights and sounds of Italy. Its final movement, which is among the most strongly dramatic music the composer ever wrote, even uses the rhythms of Neapolitan dances. The symphony premiered in London on March 13, 1833.
In 1830–31 Mendelssohn, barely into his twenties, toured Italy. He had gone south from Germany to enjoy the climate and the art, both of which he apparently found satisfactory. The region’s music, however, was a different story, as Mendelssohn vented in letters to friends and relatives: “I have not heard a single note worth remembering.” The orchestras in Rome, he reported, were “unbelievably bad,” and “[i]n Naples, the music is most inferior.” Despite these negative reactions, or perhaps in hopes of erasing them, Mendelssohn began his Italian Symphony while still on tour. The piece was completed in the fall of 1832, on a commission from the Philharmonic Society of London, and the composer himself conducted its premiere. The work was a tremendous success, and Mendelssohn described it as “the jolliest piece I have so far written…and the most mature thing I have ever done.”
Despite the audible delights of the piece, the Italian Symphony was not easy in the making. Even its creator admitted that it had brought him “some of the bitterest moments” that he had ever experienced. Most of those trying times seem to have been spent with an editor’s pen in hand, looking for ways to make the piece better. In 1834, over a year after the work’s public premiere, Mendelssohn began extensive revisions on the second, third, and fourth movements. The following year he reworked the first movement, and he was sufficiently satisfied with the result to allow another London performance in 1838. Yet Mendelssohn still withheld the composition from publication and refused to permit its performance in Germany. He continued tinkering with it until he died in 1847. Four years after Mendelssohn’s death, Czech pianist Ignaz Moscheles, who had been one of Mendelssohn’s teachers and had conducted the 1838 London performance, edited an “official” edition that finally appeared in print.
Musicologists have offered many interpretations of the Italian Symphony. For example, the extroverted opening movement might call to mind a lively urban scene, perhaps of Venice. The reverent second movement likely represents Rome during Holy Week, for Mendelssohn’s letters reveal that he was impressed by the religious processions he witnessed. The third movement, a graceful minuet distantly reminiscent of Mozart, is suggestive of an elegant Florentine Renaissance palace. Neither these nor any other interpretations of the first three movements are definitive, however. By contrast, the fourth, and final, movement needs no speculation. It depicts without a doubt a rural scene in southern Italy, for it blends two lively folk dance styles: the saltarello and the tarantella. The dances, different in rhythmic structure, are alike in general character. Both are wild and swirling, abundantly energetic (bordering on frenetic), and unquestionably Italian. In the symphony’s uninhibited finale, Mendelssohn, so deeply displeased with Italian concert music, showed his favorable reaction to the country’s folk music. He also demonstrated that Italian regional music styles could be used to great effect in an orchestral composition.
Mendelssohn – Violin Concerto op 64
“I should like to write a violin concerto for you next winter. One in E minor runs through my head, the beginning of which gives me no peace,” Mendelssohn wrote to his colleague, Ferdinand David, in 1838. Friends since childhood, David was selected by the composer in 1835 to serve as concertmaster of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, where Mendelssohn was principal conductor. Mendelssohn put the concerto on the backburner for several years, knocking around ideas and seeking advice from David on the technical demands and possibilities. He completed the concerto in 1844 and it was premiered by David the following year.
For classical violinists, it is impossible not to encounter Mendelssohn’s E minor violin concerto. It is one of the first “mature” Romantic concertos students learn and has been a staple of concert programs and discographies for nearly two centuries. Mendelssohn’s structural choices more or less align with those of previous composers; but his few changes, combined with an embrace of the violin’s virtuosic possibilities, helped make this work emblematic of Romantic era virtuosity and expression. First, he does away with the long orchestral intro: the soloist introduces the iconic theme after a measure and a half of orchestral murmuring. Second, all movements are connected through the use of attacca: little to no stopping between movements. And lastly, Mendelssohn wrote out the first movement’s cadenza and placed it early, at the end of the development section, extending the dramatic tension and setting up a recapitulation that is familiar yet unpredictable.
The Allegro molto appassionato is the soloist’s show. The orchestra does have a moment to shine after the soloist’s first entrance, but the thematic developments are driven by the violin’s memorable motives and fiery technique. In the Andante, the main theme is memorable and passionate, making full use of the violin’s lyrical strengths. The third movement, Allegretto non troppo—Allegro molto vivace, begins with a solemn introduction that makes the transition to the finale an exciting jolt to the system. The main theme is joyful and sparkling through its E major setting, the use of spiccato, and ascending and descending scalar runs. The fierce energy is maintained through the nearly nonstop forward motion of the solo part; lyrical sections serve as recharging stations for the return to technical gymnastics that bring the work to a thrilling conclusion.
A. Kori Hill