Felix Mendelssohn first thought about writing a piece such as the Scottish Symphony in 1829, when he toured the British Isles in the company of Karl Klingemann, a friend eleven years his elder.
In July, Mendelssohn and Klingemann began their journey from London to Edinburgh, a long and sometimes difficult trip by stagecoach that the composer documented through pencil drawings and pen-and-ink sketches. On July 26 they arrived in Edinburgh, and a few days later set out on a tour of the Scottish Highlands.
Though the composer would visit England ten times beginning with that first trip, he would never again go as far north as Scotland. But those three weeks he spent in Scotland in 1829 left a deep impression on Mendelssohn, which ultimately led to the birth of his Symphony #3, (Scottish), with its wonderful melodies.
Here is conductor Sir Georg Solti leading the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in this music:
