Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 11 (with Score)
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- Опубліковано 14 лип 2024
- Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy:
Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 11 (with Score)
Composed: 1824
Conductor: Claudio Abbado
Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra
00:00 1. Allegro di molto (C minor)
10:45 2. Andante (E♭ major)
17:26 3. Menuetto: Allegro molto (C minor)
24:11 4. Allegro con fuoco (C minor - C major)
Mendelssohn's first 13 symphonies are for strings only, including the one now referred to as No. 13, a single movement in C minor from 1823; however, the manuscript for the Symphony No. 1 in C minor, published in 1828 in Berlin as Op. 11, bears the inscription, "XIII," suggesting that Mendelssohn did not regard the earlier, single-movement piece as a completed string symphony.
The Symphony No. 1 was completed on March 31, 1824, when Mendelssohn was 15 years old. Like the previous string symphonies, this is clearly modeled on works by Mozart, with passages betraying the intense study of J.S. Bach's contrapuntal masterpieces. While the piece reveals the young composer's mastery of musical materials, it does not speak with an individual, inspired voice. While in London in 1829, Mendelssohn conducted a performance of his Symphony in C minor at a Philharmonic concert of May 25, substituting for the Minuet a shortened and orchestrated version of the Scherzo from his Octet, Op. 20.
Mendelssohn's first movement is Mozartian in its construction and contrasts. The grace of the falling scales and arpeggios of the main theme gives way to the lyrical second theme. After a cursory development section, the recapitulation, like the exposition, heads toward the major mode at its close. A lengthy coda returns the movement to C minor. The slow movement, an Andante in E flat major, is the most mature movement of the symphony. It is more harmonically adventurous than the other movements and the instrumentation is beautifully transparent. Formally, it is a combination of sonata form and variation technique, its rhythmic drive derived from a syncopated string accompaniment. Possibly the most characteristic sounding movement of the symphony is the Menuetto marked Allegro molto and in 6/4 meter. The main theme, in C minor, has a shape similar to that of the first movement and focuses on the juxtaposition of G natural and A flat. The trio section provides contrast with a slow, ponderous theme in the clarinets and bassoons accompanied at first by rising arpeggios and later by falling arpeggios in the strings. Contrapuntal artifice comes to the fore in the Finale, an Allegro con fuoco in C minor/major. After a lively exposition with a frenetic main theme in the violins and a lengthy pizzicato segment, the development proceeds to a strict fugue. Fugal passages and simple stretto permeate the boisterous coda, which closes the symphony triumphantly in C major.
Mozart at 15 did not have this mastery of orchestration
Mozart at 15 didn't have Mozart and Beethoven to learn orchestration from.
@@hanskoch6564
That's a very good point.
Both indubitable geniuses
@@hanskoch6564 but he had other masters like Bach or Haydn
@@biomuseum6645 Haydn himself said he never came close to mastering the symphony
No other composer wrote a top notch Ist symphony at the age of 15. It was so great that even he could hardly improve on it. The great run started with String Symphony no.8 at the age of 13.
and this is his FIRST symphony! he hadn't even had a chance to get warmed up yet! love how you can see the sheet music all the way through, shows you how much thought and work went into the piece. he didn't just dash it off!
i mean he wrote a couple of string symphonies earlier, but ok
@@los6416 yeah but there's a little difference between strings and a full orchestra.
It’s great to see Mendelssohns’ Symphonies back up again.
Incroyable comme aussi jeune il a déjà un style original qu'il conservera tout au long de sa vie.
I didn’t know it for 41 years that I actually like some of Mendelssohn’s music. And I was and am heavily involved in classical music, although not that much in the orchestral. Never too late to learn new things ☺️
Same, but I have a few years on you. Freaking genius, this Mendelssohn.
Mendelssohn was 15 when he wrote this. Quite impressive!
My thoughts
grazie di essere esistito Felix
He created the one of a kind Orchestral Overture to The Midsummer Nights Dream at age 17 which is a total revolutionary breakthrough.
00:04 Allegro di molto (c minor) Гп
01:13 возможно Пп
05:25 Разработка
06:46 Реприза
10:45 Andante (E♭ major)
17:26 Menuetto: Allegro molto (c minor)
24:11 Allegro con fuoco (c minor→C major)
Incredible and unexpected final.
genius work
Lovely piece ❤😍
My favourite
나이가 어린데도 불구하고 완성도가 상당하다...멘델스존은 그저 천재다!
The "Minuet" of the third movement sounds a lot more to me like a Beethoven Scherzo than it does a Minuet by any composer. In Minuets, I typically hear these characteristics:
- Major key(though not always, I have heard some minor key Minuets before)
- Moderate tempo, easily danceable
- 3/4 or 3/8, *not* 6/8 or 2/4
- 2 or 3 voice counterpoint with various degrees of cadences from half cadence to PAC and everything in between, and cadences are more or less predictable
- The development that occurs typically is in the B section and follows a Creschendo Diminuendo pattern of intensity and is also typically sequential
- AB *or* ABA with no subsections
- Tonic - Dominant contrast
In Scherzos on the other hand, which although Haydn wrote a few Scherzos and Scherzo-like Minuets and Rondos(The Gypsy Rondo for example is Scherzo-like), became much more common from Beethoven onwards(so much so, that in his symphonies, Beethoven only wrote 1 true minuet and other Minuet movements are Scherzos in everything but name), I notice these characteristics:
- Minor key a lot more common than in Minuet, about 50/50 split between Major and Minor key Scherzi
- 6/8 or 2/4 about as common as 3/4 or 3/8, and even when in 3/4, often a 2/4 hypermeter(in other words the measures follow a 2/4 accent(example Beethoven's Ninth Symphony Scherzo))
- Fast tempo, Allegro and Presto are very common
- More homophonic texture of Melody and Bass, not as much counterpoint as the Minuet
- Development is more like that which occurs in Sonata Form and is often equally spread amongst the A and B sections
- ABA on the large scale with subsections that also tend towards ABA, leading to a Complex Ternary Form of ABA CDC ABA(example, that, although not a scherzo, has similar characteristics, Military Polonaise)
- Major - Minor contrast(relative or parallel or even both)
I'd argue that the key thing (major/minor) is more a symptom of music generally than 'minuet' vs 'scherzo' (the scherzo showed up at a time when it was becoming more common to write in minor keys). Not entirely sure I agree with the counterpoint vs homophony thing either.
Other than that, it seems pretty spot-on.
Wow, in 1824, Beethoven published his 9th symphony, and Mendelssohn published his 1st symphony
The Menuetto sounds VERY similar to the Menuetto from his 1824 viola sonata!
He was friggin' 15 when he wrote this...
I think this piece sounds like Dvorak would write a symphony for period instruments.
個人的にメンデルスゾーン交響曲1番はモーツァルト交響曲42番です😊
第4楽章はジュピターのオマージュっぽい印象を受けます。
モーツァルトが後少し長生きしてればこんな交響曲を作曲したと思います。ハ長調のジュピターに対してハ短調ですからね…初めて1番を聴きましたが、エネルギーに満ちて美しく颯爽としてます、お気に入りに入れました。1番でジョージセル盤はないのでしょうか？ジュピターのセル盤が1番好きなので、有れば良いなぁ。
This piece is so beautiful, it puts my works to shame. Oh well. I’ll plow on anyways.
I mean, this came after 13 string symphonies, so he had practice. And, while those are all lovely, the first 6-7 of them were also clearly not entirely 'mature' pieces.
@@klop4228
Bruh, he was 15 when he wrote this piece, and he already wrote 13 String symphonies before that. Even his less mature pieces (at that age!) are better than most people's music written at the end of their lives.
@@FreakieFan Sure, but I just want our friend above to know that it takes some time for things to start working well. I know my own music that I wrote at 15 wasn't amazing (maybe at the level of some of the earlier String Symphonies, but probably not even there) but, with work, a person can get to the point where they feel their music is good.
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Although Mendelssohn is firmly Romantic, this is one of his very very few works that I personally think errs more on the late Classical side.
Seems to have a lot of motivic and emotional similarities to Beethoven’s Fifth doesn’t it?
이게왜 스피씨즈 시리즈에 있지
조심조심 ㅋ
12:25
Only 15?
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Lobgesang please🙏
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I know it's partly because of the time it was written, but that C Major coda just doesn't entirely work for me. The rest of the piece is amazing, but that kind of breaks it a little bit.
klop422 Where, the 4th movement? I don’t think it breaks the piece at all. I’ve seen Beethoven do this False Picardy Third all the time in minor keys. And this is the most Beethovenian of all of Mendelssohn’s symphonies. 2 great examples of this False Picardy Third are the Pathetique Sonata Rondo and the first movement of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. In both pieces, towards the end, the C Minor tension resolves into a peaceful C Major. Seems that the tension is over right? The Fifth Symphony even has this C Major extend into the coda. It seems as though it has resolved and will stay there, but Beethoven twists things around. He brings a diminished seventh chord out of the blue, usually vii dim7 of the tonic or dominant. This diminished seventh chord then brings it back to the tense C Minor.
Mendelssohn just takes that False Picardy Third that Beethoven does a step further to a true Picardy Third, which was common in the Romantic era from composers like Chopin. You know what other era this was common in? The Baroque era. Odds are that if you find a piece by Bach or any other Baroque composer that’s in minor, it will end with a Picardy Third. It’s mainly the Classical and Modern eras where you see minor key pieces ending in minor(that and of course Beethoven’s pieces that act like a bridge between the Classical and Romantic eras).
@@caterscarrots3407 The problem to me is not that it ends in C major at all (which I like if done well - Dvořák 7 is one of my favourite pieces and it ends with a D Major chord; and the ginale of the Scottish Symphony works really well for me), but that to me the sudden cadence into C major just feels, well, sudden. Maybe 'breaks the piece' is a bit harsh - it doesn't kill the tension entirely (like the beginning of Tchaikovsky 5's coda) but it does a little. Not a massive deal.
I'm with you on this. There's so much "minor-ness" going on that the CODA doesn't really feel right, based on the prior 30 minutes of listening. It feels like an after-thought; out of place. Maybe, like Dvorak's Symphony #7 (and Bach's Passacaglia in c minor), this would've worked better had he saved it for the last chord, lol.
15 year old !
OOOÔ
19:50