Die Hebriden in B Minor

Mendelssohn’s excursion to Scotland in 1829 left no more lasting experience than the sight of Fingal’s Cave on the island of Staffa. Completed in December 1830, The Hebrides is a concert overture in modified sonata design. Its sombre first theme evokes the cave against a shimmering backdrop, clearing for the limpid second theme that depicts the general seascape. After an energetic codetta, brass fanfares introduce a stealthy development of the first theme between strings and woodwind, bringing a forceful climax and then a curtailed reprise of the opening theme. This soon yields to the second theme, now serenely poetic on clarinets, before the music heads into a tempestuous coda that subsides into fragmented allusions to the first theme. First heard in London on 14 May 1832, The Hebrides was a success and has never left the orchestral repertoire. Brahms reputedly said he would gladly have given all he composed to write a piece like it.