For flutes I-II, oboes I-II, clarinets I-II, bassoons I-II, contrabassoon and serpent; horns I-II, trumpets I-II, trombones I-III; timpani; strings
Composed for the most part in 1830; the symphony was begun in 1824 in England and completed in April 1832 in Berlin
First performed 15 November 1832 by the Berlin Singakademie Orchestra, Mendelssohn conducting
Published by N. Simrock (Bonn, 1868; posthumous)
Duration about 30 minutes

Mendelssohn intended this symphony, at once academic and programmatic, to commemorate the tricentenary of the Augsburg Confession by which the Protestant faith had been defined in 1530 and the Lutheran Church officially established. But he found little enthusiasm for this notion in Berlin, where the celebration was to take place, and the repertoire eventually chosen included nothing by Mendelssohn. Dissatisfied with certain elements of the work, he laid it aside after the first performance and never returned to it. (The first publication was more than two decades after his death.) In Paris, too, there was discontent: The Societe des Concerts du Conservatoire dropped the symphony from an announced program after one rehearsal, explaining that it was too studied, too formal, and lacking in melody.

However that may be, the “Reformation” Symphony affords an instructive look at Mendelssohn’s compositional priorities during a time when he was under the spell of Lutheran church music. His performance of the St. Matthew Passion, on 11 March 1829, had for example led him to a systematic analysis of Bach’s styles and procedures. The obvious genuflections are in the use of Martin Luther’s chorale Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott (A Mighty Fortress is Our God) in the finale and the various occurrences of the “Dresden” Amen. But there are other allusions to past practice as well: the slow movement strongly suggests a Baroque arioso, and there is something of the chorale prelude in the finale. Likewise, the harmonic relationships are grand and churchly, as when the last movement opens in G and continues in D in the fashion of a sweeping Amen.
The work opens quietly as a brooding melodic motive begins in the lower strings and spreads in layers through the orchestra. The motive changes shape in the woodwinds to become a kind of fanfare, answered by the Dresden Amen in the strings. With the sudden shift into minor , rapid duple meter, and a theme born of the fanfares, a sonata-allegro structure has begun. It is a long, tempestuous movement, possibly meant to suggest thoughts of the Protestant wards. First group, bridge, and second group join seamlessly and with little or no repose; the restless development, concerning itself almost exclusively with the first theme, builds to a great climax with trumpets and drums and downward lunge of strings. At this juncture, the Dresden Amen settles over and quiets the fury. The recapitulation, as though humbled by this piety, begins softly, unlike the exposition, and is quite brief.

A light minuet (or scherzo) and trio follows here, rather than in the customary third-movement position, as though to offset the rigors of the long movement just concluded. As in the “Italian” Symphony, Mendelssohn is given to digression, such that the second phrases of both minuet and trio leave more the impression of following one’s nose than close adherence to a given form. The brevity of the third movement, a simple rounded aria form for first violins and rudimentary accompaniment in the supporting strings, suggests such Baroque antecedents as the slow movements of the Bach orchestral suites. When, in the final bars, a melody from the first movement is quoted, we can see in retrospect how the rhythmic and melodic character has been derived from material that has come before.

This proceeds without pause to the chorale Ein feste Burg as slow introduction to the last movement. The first four notes of the chorale should bring to mind the fanfares of the opening movement, for the two figures are inversions of each other. A 6/8 Vivace on phrases from the chorale effects the transition into the Allegro maestoso, clearly meant to be in the tradition of the heroic finale to Beethoven’s Fifth. We are never far from the chorale, which is treated contrapuntally in the development section and then in purest homophony for the statement that brings the symphony to its majestic end.