The Symphony No. 4 in A major, Op. 90, commonly known as the Italian, is an orchestral symphony written by German composer Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847).
The Italian Symphony was finished in Berlin, 13 March 1833, in response to an invitation for a symphony from the London (now Royal) Philharmonic Society; he conducted the first performance himself in London on 13 May 1833, at a London Philharmonic Society concert. The symphony’s success, and Mendelssohn’s popularity, influenced the course of British music for the rest of the century.
The piece is scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani and strings. It is in four movements:
Allegro vivace
Andante con moto
Con moto moderato
Saltarello: Presto
Mendelssohn remained unsatisfied with the composition, which cost him, he said, some of the bitterest moments of his career; he revised it in 1837 and even planned to write alternate versions of the second, third, and fourth movements. He never published the symphony, which only appeared in print in 1851, after his death.
Today we are going to show the joyful first movement, in sonata form, is followed by an impression in D minor of a religious procession the composer witnessed in Naples.
This is a non-commercial attempt to highlight the fact that world leaders, irresponsible corporates and mindless ‘consumers’ are combining to destroy life on earth.
Loneliness, detached, overwhelmed, fascinated, homesick – a year of travelling around the globe on business trips.
Gunther Machu flew 6 times around the world, spent 1.5 weeks (net) in airplanes 2011 and collected shots the whole year for this project.
He walked for hours around airports to get the one shot, got nearly arrested at Chicago O’Hare but had some good luck too!
Filmed at Seoul, Shanghai, Beijing, Chicago, Houston, Dubai, Frankfurt and my home – airport Vienna.
Shot on Lumix GH1 and GH2 (both hacked), by making use of the ETC mode on the GH2 I was able to get up to 3200mm equiv. focal length.
