Symphony No. 4, in A played by The BBC Orchestra
(Section C) led by Marie Wilson
Conducted by Herbert Menges
Mendelssohn complained that the ' Italian ' Symphony, completed in 1831, cost him some of the bitterest moments in his life, and in consequence it was not published until after his death, in . 1847. Despite this fact, it is one of his finest works.
' We may safely conclude '. says
Sir Donald Tovey , ' that Mendelssohn's own dissatisfaction with the " Italian Symphony " is rather an objection to the laws of human growth than the recognition of defects that self-criticism and revision can remedy.'