Symphony no. 4 "Italian" in A major, op. 90

Mendelssohn started this symphony in 1831 during a year spent travelling through Venice, Rome, Naples, Florence and Milan, and completed it in Berlin on 13 March 1833 in response to a commission from the London Philharmonic Society. He conducted the first performance in London two months later, on 13 May. It was a public success, but he was never satisfied with it: he revised the last three movements, withheld the score from publication, and it appeared in print only after his death. The finale is a saltarello in the minor — an unusual way to end a major-key symphony.