JOURNEY TO SCOTLAND
Santa Fe Pro Musica presents Mendelssohn pieces influenced by his travels
When Felix Mendelssohn first traveled to Scotland in 1829, he described it as “nothing but whisky, fog and foul weather.”
Despite these misgivings, the composer fell in love with that wild landscape musically, particularly through the stories of Mary Queen of Scots. The composer captured that duality in his music to be performed by Santa Fe Pro Musica next weekend at the Lensic Performing Arts Center. The musicians will play Mendelssohn’s “Hebrides Overture,” his Concerto in E Minor, Op. 64 and Symphony No. 3, with its vivid depictions of ruins, ghosts, highland festivals and rousing battles.
“He was beginning his grand
tour of Europe at the age of 20 or 21,” artistic director Tom O’Connor said. “He described the trip through sketches and letters.”
Mendelssohn visted the chapel ruins at Holyrood Palace, where Queen Mary was crowned.
The “Hebrides Overture” describes the violence of the wind roaring the surf into Fingal’s Cave on the island of Staffa.
The composer also penned the Concerto in E Minor, arguably the most popular violin concerto ever.
“It’s a fantastic mix of everything Mendelssohn was great at,” O’Connor said, “this sweet, virtuosic solo part and an accompaniment that is more than perfunctory.”
Mendelssohn’s letters home reveal the deprivations he experienced and witnessed, O’Connor said.
“They saw children sleeping on straw in hovels with chickens,” he said. “I think the pieces capture that.”
Conductor Ruth Reinhardt will lead the orchestra.
Reinhardt spent two years as assistant conductor of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.