The Italian Symphony, reflecting these influences, is animated, vividly pictorial, almost spontaneous, yet with the most polished construction and felicitous scoring.
 

From 1835 Mendelssohn was conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, and he made it one of the best ensembles in Germany. He led the world premieres of Schubert’s then recently discovered Great Symphony in C major and his own Scotch Symphony. He was among the first to conduct with a baton, and he pioneered the modern approach to programming concerts and seasons with a mix of repertoire staples and new works. He was also the guiding force behind the founding of the Leipzig Conservatory, in 1843.
 

Looking at Mendelssohn’s career, one gets the impression of a figure in motion, in great demand everywhere music mattered—the first performing artist of the “steamship” set, making multiple visits to England (where he was revered) and constantly on the go in Germany. But what began as the kind of adventure only the privileged could enjoy turned into a grueling, stressful routine. Mendelssohn experienced burnout, then exhaustion. He died in 1847 a few months after his beloved elder sister, and in the same way, following a series of strokes.
 

Mendelssohn’s overtures are seminal for a whole vein of Romantic music: A Midsummer Night’s Dream for its shining synthesis of formal and descriptive elements; Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage as a masterpiece of tone painting, in which Mendelssohn offers up a paean to modern capitalism, using trumpet fanfares to proclaim a merchant ship’s arrival in port. Most brilliant of all is the Hebrides Overture, its opening composed in a flash of inspiration as Mendelssohn contemplated the craggy seascape of Fingal’s Cave in Scodand. 
 

In symphonies as in overtures, Mendelssohn was a master of pictorialism (as opposed to programmatic narrative). The most satisfying are the Italian, with which the composer tinkered needlessly, and the Scotch. The Violin Concerto from 1844 belies the notion that Mendelssohn became uninspired as he got older; it is a great, “late” work of perfected, intimate craftsmanship, dazzling and memorable. The Piano Concertos in G minor and D minor are scintillating, vivacious works that put a premium on fleet-fingered virtuosity. Mendelssohn ranked among his era’s best pianists, and was probably its finest organist as well. He wrote much good organ music and a large amount for the piano—most important the Lieder ohne Warte (Songs Without Words), the Rondo capriccioso, and Variations serieuses. His important chamber works after the Octet include two piano trios and half a dozen string quartets. He penned two impressive oratorios, Paulus (1836) and Elijah (1846), effectively reviving the tradition and bringing a new symphonic cogency to the genre.