Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy: "Hymn of Praise"

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy's "Lobgesang" (Symphony No. 2) is a work on the boundary between symphony and oratorio. Mendelssohn composed it in 1840 to mark the 400th anniversary of Johannes Gutenberg's invention of the printing press in Leipzig. Already this occasion highlights the work's strongly spiritual and humanistic dimension. First, a purely instrumental, symphonic section with a festive character is heard. This is followed by a vocal section with soloists and choir, which in its structure strongly resembles an oratorio.