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Topic: Mendelssohn's Italian Revision  (Read 1633 times)

Offline goldentone

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Mendelssohn's Italian Revision
on: July 18, 2008, 07:43:07 AM
Alistair commented about Vaughan Williams' credited advice "that if a piece is sufficiently in need of revision it's probably best to write a new piece instead", and it reminded me of Mendelssohn and his Italian symphony, which in the last three movements he later revised.  And the revised final movement is almost an entirely different piece than the original (which is the one that is played).  As the liner notes of the CD say (Vienna Philharmonic/Gardiner), "Only in the finale did Mendelssohn substantively alter the design of the composition."  And I think he succeeded only in taking the bite out of the
exciting finale.

It is fascinating that, in a movement that I think so many love and deem genius, Mendelssohn could have tampered with until it had practically dissolved.
Have any of you have heard the revised version of the Italian?  I didn't know there was such a thing until I saw this CD some years ago.  I was very interested to hear it so I bought it.

Graci.
 
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