Pilgrims’ March from Symphony No. 4

From 1829 through 1831 Felix Mendelssohn travelled on an extended journey through Europe that inspired several of his best known works. The year and a half that he spent in Italy saw him begin work on this symphony, his fourth. Known as the Italian Symphony, it was warmly received after its premier in London, but Mendelssohn always felt it needed more work and it was never published in his lifetime. The second movement presented here was inspired by a religious procession that Mendelssohn witnessed in Naples.