ABSTRACT
When Mendelssohn died on November 4, 1847, he left in his musical estate a large number of completed but unpublished compositions and many planned but unfinished works. The most important of the completed compositions included the incidental music to Athalia and Oedipus at Colonos and the Italian and Reformation Symphonies, which appeared after his death as opp. 74, 93, 90, and 107 respectively. The posthumous publications also included two important fragments: a series of solo and ensemble pieces intended for the oratorio Christus and the opera Lorelei (opp. 97 and 98). But among the fragments overlooked by the editors of Mendelssohn’s music were sketches and drafts for two symphonies in B-flat major and C major—two other large-scale works that never came to fruition. In surprising contrast to the interest generated by unfinished symphonies of other composers, the symphonic fragments of Mendelssohn have largely escaped the attention of modern researchers.
