Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra - Symphony No 3 in A minor / Op 56 Scottish - LP

Published and numbered third, the "Scottish" was actually the last of Mendelssohn's five mature symphonies, completed in 1842. Its inspiration, however, goes back to summer 1829 and the composer's first visit to Britain and Scottland. In Edinburgh he attended a gathering of Highland pipers and visited Holyrood, writing home on July 30: "In darkening twilight today, we went to the Palace [of Holyrood] where Queen Mary lived and loved. There is a little room to be seen there with a spiral staircase at its door. That is where they went up and found Rizzio in the room, dragged him out, and three chambers away there is a dark corner where they murdered him. The chapel beside it has lost its roof and is overgrown with grass and ivy, and at that broken altar Mary was crowned Queen of Scotland. Everything there is ruined, decayed and open to the clear sky. I believe that I have found there today the beginning of my Scottish Symphony."