Orchestra (2.2.2.2.dble
bsn.serp - 2.2.3.0 - timp
- str)
SKU:
BR.PB-5581
Urtext
based on the Leipzig
Mendelssohn Complete
Edition. Composed by
Felix Bartholdy
Mendelssohn. Edited by
Thomas Schmidt.
Orchestra; Softbound.
Partitur-Bibliothek
(Score Library).
Symphony; Romantic. Full
score. 140 pages.
Duration 30'. Breitkopf
and Haertel #PB 5581.
Published by Breitkopf
and Haertel (BR.PB-5581).
ISBN 9790004213919. 10
x 12.5 inches.
A
Programmatic Declaration
of BeliefFelix
Mendelssohn Bartholdy
composed his Reformation
Symphony for the
celebrations marking the
300th anniversary of the
Confessio Augustana, the
Protestant declaration of
faith. Owing to various
and only partially
explained reasons, there
was no performance in
1830, the year in
question; it was only two
years later that the
composer conducted the
premiere of his work, now
heavily revised, in
Berlin. There was only
one more performance in
Mendelssohn's lifetime,
this one conducted by
Julius Rietz in
Dusseldorf; the composer
had since distanced
himself from his
opus.Conceived for the
concert hall, the
symphony formulates its
theological references
through the integration
of various motives. This
occurs in the finale, for
example, in which
Mendelssohn quotes the
Luther chorale Ein feste
Burg in the flute, from
where it builds up to a
triumphant principal
theme. The strong
extra-musical aspect must
have been one of the
reasons for the
composer's later
avoidance of this score,
especially since
Mendelssohn was becoming
increasingly skeptical
about explicitly
programmatic music in the
instrumental domain. Next
to the Dusseldorf
performance material of
1837, two scribal copies
have been examined for
the first time; they
transmit the main stages
of the version of
1830.