{"id":4027,"date":"2024-11-18T17:10:08","date_gmt":"2024-11-18T15:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harmon.es\/?p=4027"},"modified":"2025-10-28T18:53:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T16:53:12","slug":"llegar-a-italia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harmon.es\/en\/llegar-a-italia","title":{"rendered":"To Arrive in Italy"},"content":{"rendered":"

A pluck of pizzicato on the strings, a restless impatience of quavers in the woodwinds: the violins burst into an exultant melody. Blue skies in A major, Mediterranean light. This is how Mendelssohn, at the opening of his Symphony No. 4<\/em>, captures the joy of arriving in Italy.<\/p>\n

It was his father\u2014perhaps recalling Leopold Mozart\u2014who encouraged him to take the southern route. An initiatory journey: to cross the Alps from the cold Lutheran sun; to understand, as Goethe put it, the meaning of marble. Nothing is so enriching for a young man as awakening, alone, in a new city. It is October 1830, and Mendelssohn\u2014barely twenty-one\u2014writes from Venice with delight: \u201cItaly at last! What I have longed for all my life as the greatest happiness has begun, and I rejoice in it.\u201d<\/em> The autumnal mists of the Giudecca, mystical and sensual, inspire two exquisite gondola songs dedicated to Delphine von Schauroth, the composer\u2019s youthful, impossible love.<\/p>\n

Spring greets him in Rome, after brief stays in Bologna and Florence. Rome the imperial\u2014exuberant, festive, celebrating the arrival of a new pope. Transparent, radiant, bedecked; hiding in its corners and sunsets, flaunting itself in the nostalgia of its ruins and the majesty of its palaces. It intoxicates. The composer is not immune: he explores it with eager curiosity, reading Goethe\u2019s Italian Journey<\/em> as his companion.<\/p>\n

It is there that he begins to write Symphony No. 4<\/em>. A work full of life, fiercely youthful, a testament to those happy days: \u201cThe whole country had such a festive air that I felt like a young prince making a triumphant entry,\u201d<\/em> he would recall years later. Hence the contagious joy of the first movement and the fire of the final saltarello\u2013tarantella<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Gone is the spiritual grandeur\u2014the organ-like solemnity\u2014of his previous Reformation Symphony<\/em>, with its Lutheran melancholy, its Dresden Amen, its ascent to heaven. Mendelssohn now writes from a different light, a different ease, with a more human voice: his feet once again touch the earth. The austere northern god, all solemnity, yields to Bacchus.<\/p>\n

In a letter to his sister Fanny, he wrote: \u201cThe Italian Symphony is making great progress; it will be the most cheerful piece I have ever composed, especially the last movement.\u201d<\/em> Yet he added, \u201cI have not decided anything for the Adagio; I think I want to reserve it for Naples.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Naples. For lack of better words, let Goethe speak: \u201cAs we approached, the air grew ever purer; we were indeed arriving in another land [\u2026] Here one no longer thinks of Rome; compared to Naples\u2019 clarity, one pictures the world\u2019s capital, in the deep valley of the Tiber, as an old, ill-situated monastery.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The deep blue sea of the Gulf of Sorrento, the terribly beautiful silhouette of Vesuvius, Cape Minerva and, far in the distance, almost like a longing, the Isle of Capri. A vision of light: \u201cHere one only wishes to live; one forgets oneself,\u201d<\/em> Goethe concludes. From Naples, Mendelssohn seems to have brought back a religious march\u2014though some hear instead a Bohemian melody or even a song by his teacher Carl Friedrich Zelter. In any case, even in this more solemn second movement, the symphony never loses its spontaneity or carefree spirit.<\/p>\n

Yet that spontaneity is deceptive: beneath it lies a polished, painstaking score that Mendelssohn revised repeatedly\u2014before its London premiere in 1833, and even afterward. In vain, for he was never entirely satisfied with it.<\/p>\n

This lack of conviction consigned the symphony to temporary obscurity. No matter. Time has rendered its verdict, and today we can only yield before it: before its formal perfection, its craftsmanship, and that irresistible joy with which Mendelssohn transports us, in an instant, to Italy\u2014his rinc\u00f3n feliz<\/em>, his happy corner.<\/p>\n

For more than a century, countless interpretations of this symphony have appeared. Rather than list them all, I\u2019ll mention only those I return to most often\u2014each, in its way, capturing the work\u2019s beauty and spirit.<\/p>\n

Though Toscanini is an undisputed master of this repertoire, attention must be paid to his disciple Guido Cantelli<\/strong>, whose vigorous and technically brilliant recording with the Philharmonia Orchestra (Studio, 1955) offers an excellent introduction to the work.<\/p>\n

Beyond the classic versions by Lorin Maazel<\/strong> (Berlin Philharmonic, DG 1962), Claudio Abbado<\/strong> (London Symphony Orchestra, DG 1984), and Leonard Bernstein<\/strong> (Israel Philharmonic, DG 1979), I recommend George Szell<\/strong> (Cleveland Orchestra, Epic 1963)\u2014proof that technical precision and emotion can coexist.<\/p>\n

Seeking warmer orchestral colours and a more Mediterranean tone, Riccardo Muti<\/strong> (New Philharmonia Orchestra, Angel Records 1977) delivered an exuberant, radiant reading\u2014perhaps my favourite.<\/p>\n

Finally, I must mention the superb recent complete symphonic cycle by Paavo J\u00e4rvi<\/strong> (Tonhalle-Orchester Z\u00fcrich, Alpha Classics, 2024). Under his baton, the Italian Symphony<\/em> sounds fresh and renewed. Don\u2019t miss the masterfully articulated final tarantella.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

By \u00c1lvaro Portillo<\/strong><\/p>\n

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