"To all extents and purposes, Germany is the land of artists," wrote Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy in 1831 while on his travels in Italy; but Italy, he added, "is the land of art." Indeed, everywhere he went in Italy, the 22-year-old composer found impulses for his symphony ("I have to save the work until I have seen Naples"). But although the country fired his inspiration ("It will be the merriest piece that I have ever written"), he did not actually write the "Italian" Symphony there.

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