and satisfying experience, so the opportunity to hear his interpretations of Mendelssohn's Italian and Scottish Symphonies with his Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century as part...

and satisfying experience, so the opportunity to hear his interpretations of Mendelssohn's Italian and Scottish Symphonies with his Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century as part of The Grand Tour series is indeed an enticing one. Conductor and orchestra are both strongly in harmony with the evolving nature of the Romantic spirit of the 19th century. Here, Felix Mendelssohn is a composer who has long fascinated Brüggen and on the new recording the legendary conductor marvellously captures the emotional torrents experienced by Mendelssohn when reflecting on his own Grand Tour, which took in both the blazing sun of Rome and also the mists of the Scottish Highlands. Opting to perform the original 1833 version of the Italian Symphony (as at its first performance in London), Brüggen sets out to paint a stronger contrast with the later completed Symphony No 3, brilliantly reflecting the composer's wildly fluctuating moods at the time.