Mendelssohn's Italian Symphony

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1 Compositional Context and Critical Reception
2 Composition, Revision, and Early Performances
3 The Musical Sources
4 The Music and Its Revisions
5 An 'Italian' Symphony?
6 Knowing Mendelssohn

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Mendelssohn's posthumously published Symphony in A Major has become one of the staples of the nineteenth-century symphonic canon, and is often considered emblematic of Mendelssohn's stylistic strengths and weaknesses - yet the version by which the work has always been known is the first complete version (1833), which was rejected by the composer and rewritten by him the following year. This study documents the Symphony's complicated genesis, examines the reception history of that version, and explores the far-reaching changes incorporated in the 1834 reworking. The book concludes with chapters about the validity and implications of the traditional 'Italian' epithet and the ways in which the music of the two principal versions can shape our understanding of Mendelssohn, his music, and his significance as a cultural figure in the musical culture of the nineteenth century.

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Music and Letters

There is no doubt that this book represents a consideable scholarly achievement. It brings about a thorough 'defamiliarization' of the 'Italian' Symphony, both through the revelation of a great number of new details concerning its festation and chronology, and through the wide array of new interpretative perspectives that John Michael Cooper opens up, especially on programmatic aspects and the work's 'Italian-ness'.... All in all, this new book is indispensable to anyone with a serious interest in Mendelssohn and is strongly recommended

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