Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 11

Thomas Fey and the Heidelberger Sinfoniker present the first volume of what will become the definitive Mendelssohn cycle of the new century! Thomas Fey has been a long-term advocate of the orchestral music of Mendelssohn – a composer he understands. These performances capture the brilliance and fire of the young composer’s imagination at its most luminous. Utilizing the full range of the Heidelberg ensemble’s unique sound, Maestro Fey has assembled several rare and fascinating ALTERNATE versions of Mendelssohn’s String Symphonies that the composer himself later orchestrated. This program has NO competition in the current catalogue of classical music releases!

Following the global success of his earlier recordings of Beethoven and Berlioz, Sir Roger Norrington leads his Stuttgart ensemble on a voyage of discovery into the works of the Gentle Genius, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. The First Symphony was composed when Mendelssohn was 19, following a prolific period of composing the 13 early Symphonies for Strings, and lyrically expands on the stylistic brilliance of Beethoven and Mozart. The idea to compose a symphony in honor of the tercentenary celebration of Augsburg Confession (1530), came to Mendelssohn while he was in England during the fall of 1829. The symphony was completed during that winter. It was first entitled Symphony for the Celebration of a Religious Revolution; the title Reformation became associated with the piece later. The symphony received few performances during the composer's lifetime and was evidently laid aside, as it wasn't published until 1868, posthumously.