This beautiful symphony has endured something of an identity crisis. Though it was traditionally always called the ‘Scotch’ Symphony, it was decreed at some time around 1980 by the good folk from the “sterner side of the Tweed” (Forsyth 1935:486) that that adjective is incorrect and improper in this context, and may only be applied to certain comestibles such as (obviously) whisky, but also beef, pancakes and broth. If “Scottish Symphony” possesses not quite the same ring, this is equally true of Dvořák's ‘American’ Quartet, and arguably the popularity of neither work has suffered from its enforced renaming.

The original inspiration for the symphony was Mendelssohn's walking tour of Scotland back in 1829 whose first fruits were the Overture Fingal's Cave (see p.305 below) in 1832; the symphony took longer, following only in 1842. By the time it was published in 1843 it had undergone considerable revision, especially in the outer movements, and it is in this new form that the work has always been known. In 2011, however, the original version was reconstructed by Christopher Hogwood for his Bärenreiter Urtext edition (Uh below), which contains both. The present report examines only the familiar 1843 version.

Already in 1831 Mendelssohn had experimented with continuity, linking all the movements of his Piano Concerto No.1 without a break, but in this symphony he retains the idea even though each movement comes to a full close: on the blank page opposite the first page of score (source E) he adds this instruction: Die einzelnen Sätze dieser Symphonie müssen gleich auf einander folgen, und nicht durch die sonst gewöhnlichen längeren Unterbrechungen von einander getrennt werden. (The individual movements of this Symphony must follow each other directly, without being separated by the usual long breaks.) This idea was later taken up by Schumann, in the revised version of Symphony No.4, the Cello Concerto and the Konzertstück for four horns and orchestra.