Mendelssohns 12 juvenile symphonies are more than the scholastic exercises of a compositionally precocious twelve-year-old. Mendelssohn assimilates some vastly different influences (Bach, Mozart, Dittersdorf, etc. ) and attains an amazing originality in certain movements. The source-critical scores of the string symphonies were issued a fairly long time ago as part of the Leipzig Mendelssohn Edition.