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Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Op. 56 ("Scottish")
Czech Philharmonic
conductor: Semyon Bychkov
Recorded by Studio Rudolfinum on 4th February 2021 in the Dvořák Hall. Directed by Michael Beyer.
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809-1847) is one of the most famous composers of the early Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, he soon exhibited a versatile musical talent as not only a composer, but also a pianist, organist, and conductor. One of his achievements as a performer and promoter was the reawakening of the musical community’s interest in the works of Johann Sebastian Bach. His own compositions won great acclaim in Great Britain, which he visited on ten occasions.
The details of the creation of the symphony commonly called the “Scottish” and its position in the context of the composer’s oeuvre are a bit of a mystery to music historians. It is certain that the first impulse for writing the symphony came during Mendelssohn’s first visit to the British Isles in 1829 when he was accompanied by Karl Klingemann, a friend of the family who was working there in the diplomatic services. One of the goals of his visit was to meet the writer Sir Walter Scott, the literary idol of the Romantic movement in Europe. Although their encounter supposedly did not turn out the way that Mendelssohn had hoped (they caught the author just as he was leaving home and managed to exchange only a few words with him), Mendelssohn had a number of powerful experiences in his travels around Scotland. According to a letter from the composer to his family, the initial impulse was his visit to the ruin of the Holyrood Abbey in Edinburgh, the seat of Queen Maria Stuart of Scotland in the sixteenth century. It was there that he wrote down the opening motif of the symphony’s first movement. After that sudden flash of inspiration, however, it took a long thirteen years before the symphony was finished. Although it is called his third, in reality, it is the fifth of his symphonies.
When performing and publishing his symphony, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy did not draw any attention to “Scottish” content in his symphony, nor did he provide any concrete musical programme. Nonetheless, dramatic development can be heard in the music, and listeners can project Scotland’s stirring history onto it. The first, second, and fourth movements contain passages that suggest scenes of a battle or marching, while the third movement is stylized as a funeral march. The second movement contains melodic elements that are reminiscent of Scottish folk music, although there are no specific quotes. The symphony ends with a coda, in which the composer quotes his own musical setting of the prayer Ave Maria, and this can be understood as a hidden reference to Maria Stuart. Innovative for its day is the composer’s requirement that the individual movements of the symphony follow each other without a pause, allowing the music to flow more seamlessly. The symphony was premiered in Leipzig in 1842, and Mendelssohn dedicated it to Queen Victoria.
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