In this study of the composition, reception, extramusical implications, and stylistic eclecticism of Mendelssohn's Italian Symphony, a staple of the 19th-century musical canon, Cooper devotes extensive attention to the differences between the posthumously published familiar version of the work and the composer's revision.

This is the first book-length study of the composition, reception, extramusical implications, and stylistic eclecticism of Mendelssohn's Italian Symphony, a staple of the nineteenth-century musical canon. Cooper devotes extensive attention to the differences between the posthumously published familiar version of the work and the composer's revision, which remained unpublished until 2001. He presents substantial new insights into a work which many listeners and scholars have known only in the version the composer considered less successful.

There is no doubt that this book represents a consideable scholarly achievement. It brings about a thorough 'defamiliarization' of the 'Italian' Symphony, both through the revelation of a great number of new details concerning its festation and chronology, and through the wide array of new interpretative perspectives that John Michael Cooper opens up, especially on programmatic aspects and the work's 'Italian-ness'.... All in all, this new book is indispensable to anyone with a serious interest in Mendelssohn and is strongly recommended.