Felix Mendelssohn
Mendelssohn is the Romantic who kept the Classical forms most intact. His symphonies follow the four-movement plan, his sonata forms have clear expositions and recapitulations, and his counterpoint comes from a lifelong study of Bach, whose St Matthew Passion he revived in 1829. What is Romantic is the colour and the mood: landscape, weather, light.
The Scottish Symphony, No. 3, was begun after a visit to Edinburgh in 1829 and finished in 1842. Its four movements run without a break, and a short slow introduction supplies material that returns later. The scherzo uses a pentatonic tune that suggests folk music without quoting any; the finale ends with a new, hymn-like theme in the major.
His scherzos are the fastest and lightest of anyone's: quiet, quick, and precise. Listen to them for orchestral playing rather than for drama.
What to listen for
- The introduction of the Scottish Symphony and its return at the end of the first movement.
- The joins between movements: the work asks to be played without pauses.
- The scherzo's pentatonic tune on the clarinet.
- The finale's closing theme, which is new and in the major after a movement mostly in the minor.
Source: Felix Mendelssohn