In autumn 1830 Mendelssohn Bartholdy visited Venice whilst on a great European tour and was intoxicated by his impressions. He said of the local gondoliers: “The gondoliers are now crying out to one another again, and the lights are reflected deep in the water; one is playing the guitar and singing. It is a merry night”.

Perhaps it was with this in mind that Mendelssohn wrote four Venetian Gondola Songs between 1830 and 1841 (published in Henle Urtext in the collected volumes HN 327 and 861)...