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<br /> Nonetheless, the Italian journey inspired Felix to "compose with fresh vigor" and begin a work that, he wrote to Fanny,
<br /> "will be the jolliest piece I have ever written, especially the last movement." Responding to this "land of art...a chosen
<br /> land of nature, where there is life and beauty everywhere," he produced the "Italian Symphony" (No. 4), dubbed by his
<br /> biographer Heinrich Eduard Jacob "A Blue Sky in A Major." Mendelssohn filled in his sketches of the work in response to
<br /> a commission from the London Philharmonic Society,and premiered it in that city as conductor on 13 May 1833. It proved
<br /> extraordinarily successful on first hearing, and remains a staple of the repertoire.
<br /> The work's opening movement, wrote early 20th century musicologist Charles Grove, "seems to embody the general
<br /> feelings aroused by Mendelssohn's entrance into Italy and his journey from the Alps to Rome, of which such delightful
<br /> records are left in his letters...Never perhaps was music written more wonderfully full of the fire of youth..."The solemn
<br /> slow movement is sometimes compared with the "Pilgrim's March" of Berlioz's Harold in Italy. Grove chooses, instead,
<br /> a cross-cultural religious metaphor, hearing in its opening phrase a "loud call to prayer or meditation, like the cry of
<br /> the muezzin from the minaret." The third movement takes the form of a classical Minuet and Trio, evoking, not Rome,
<br /> but rather Mozart's Vienna. However, in the last movement, labeled Saltarello after a leaping folk dance, the Italianate
<br /> connection becomes overt. Grove proposes that this"Finale...was doubtless inspired by the Carnival of Rome, in the fun
<br /> of which Mendelssohn joined as heartily as any born Italian..." Todd connects it more precisely to the composer's vivid
<br /> recollection of a wild saltarello danced at a party, with tambourine in hand, by the daughter of Horace Vernet, director of
<br /> the French Academy in Rome.
<br /> Despite its popular acceptance, Mendelssohn was never satisfied with the"Italian Symphony,"tinkered with it repeatedly
<br /> but (like the "Reformation") never published it, and reportedly wished it be destroyed after his death. Wherein lay the
<br /> disconnect between the composer's feelings and the "Italian Symphony's" evident quality and popular appeal? It is
<br /> difficult after nearly two centuries to psychoanalyze the bouts of severe self-doubt suffered by a genius. However, Jacob
<br /> may have provided a key insight with the suggestion that Mendelssohn, unlike Berlioz, connected only superficially with
<br /> the land he visited. "He was painting Italy as a traveling Englishman might see her. Italy did have its idyllic side, after all,
<br /> although it was not exactly the real Italy."Tellingly, "Felix knew no Italians. He was totally unaware of the political currents
<br /> of Italian life...[or of] the cultural aspirations of the Italian people." Natives observed in a local café, evoked his disgust,
<br /> as he observed "whole faces sprouting hair, sending up dreadful clouds of smoke, saying rude things...[their] dogs
<br /> contributing to the spread of vermin..." Edward Green of the Manhattan School of Music in an article on "The Combat
<br /> Between Respect and Contempt in the Mind of Felix Mendelssohn",suggests that the composer's temperament included
<br /> "an unhandsomely competitive component," leading
<br /> 111, to estrangement from all but a handful of people
<br /> such as Goethe and his sister Fanny. This pattern,
<br /> Green argues, began "very early in his life, when
<br /> "' his family encouraged him to view himself as a
<br /> F" superior being." Perhaps the wonderful facility of
<br /> the "Italian Symphony" convinced its listeners, but
<br /> failed to satisfy the heart of its self-aware composer.
<br /> °" Green hypothesizes that "Mendelssohn's
<br /> ��� ��� F1 �'` Thus,
<br /> "� � inability ever to consider it finished..."unconsciously
<br /> �, � �r pp R� „ �� [reflected his]shame about indulging in contempt for
<br /> �� Ir �N��� � w� � P the Italian people.,,
<br /> �1II1 IIVVI 'rye 1,1„1„1„1„1,100,0„„„i„,. ��...1Imi IV Il ti Die Ironically, Mendelssohn's own legacy has suffered
<br /> ,. . .
<br /> lor 11'11111 , ,._ irrevocably from racist contempt first promulgated
<br /> by Richard Wagner in a screed on "Jewishness in
<br /> One of Mendelssohn's Drawings in Italy Music." Despite Mendelssohn having been raised
<br />
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