Mr. Peabody Says:

Joan Pagès Valls/Musikgymnasium Schloss Belvedere Weimar

This  young conductor is doing amazing work, and these young kids are spectacular. So what you hear is a bunch of kids playing the music of another kid, all under absolutely amazing leadership. This symphony was completed on 31 March 1824, only a couple months after Mendelssohn’s 15th birthday. The autographed score was published in 1831.

I. Allegro di molto,  C minor

II. Andante, Eb major

III. Menuetto: Allegro molto, C minor

IV. Allegro con fuoco, C minor

Instruments:

• two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets in B♭, two bassoons
• two horns in E♭ and/or C, two trumpets in C
• timpani in C, G
• strings

The premiere

It happened at a private gathering on 14 November 1824 to honor his sister Fanny Mendelssohn’s 19th birthday. Think about that. Your older sister just turns 19 and you write a symphony for her birthday, then your father has enough money and connection to get your symphony played. Talk about the right talent being born into the right family!

Public premiere

Its public premiere occurred on 1 February 1827, with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra performing under the leadership of Johann Philipp Christian Schulz.

The symphony was dedicated to the Philharmonic Society, who performed the London premiere on May 25, 1829, with Mendelssohn conducting. At that time Mendelssohn was still only 20.

A different 3rd movement

For this performance Mendelssohn orchestrated the scherzo from his Octet Op. 20 as an alternative third movement for the symphony.

I can understand why he did so, but his original movement is so good I don’t understand why it would ever have been replaced.

The review of this first public performance:

Though only about one or two-and-twenty years of age, he has already produced several works of magnitude, which, if at all to be compared with the present, ought, without such additional claim, to rank him among the first composers of the age…. Fertility of invention and novelty of effect, are what first strike the hearers of M. Mendelssohn’s symphony; but at the same time, the melodiousness of its subjects, the vigour with which these are supported, the gracefulness of the slow movement, the playfulness of some parts, and the energy of others, are all felt…. The author conducted it in person, and it was received with acclamation.

There is a good link HERE to read more about the story.