"Allegro vivace" from Symphony No. 4 in A major, Op. 90 "Italian"

The first movement of the Fourth Symphony. Mendelssohn conceived it during his Italian travels of 1830-31 and conducted the premiere in London in 1833. He was never satisfied with the work, kept revising it and never published it in his lifetime, so what is played today remains the premiere text. The pulsing woodwind figure and the violins' unison theme that open it are its most familiar music.