Following the global success of his earlier recordings of Beethoven and Berlioz, Sir Roger Norrington leads his Stuttgart ensemble on a voyage of discovery into the works of the Gentle Genius, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. The First Symphony was composed when Mendelssohn was 19, following a prolific period of composing the 13 early Symphonies for Strings, and lyrically expands on the stylistic brilliance of Beethoven and Mozart. The idea to compose a symphony in honor of the tercentenary celebration of Augsburg Confession (1530), came to Mendelssohn while he was in England during the fall of 1829. The symphony was completed during that winter. It was first entitled Symphony for the Celebration of a Religious Revolution; the title Reformation became associated with the piece later. The symphony received few performances during the composer's lifetime and was evidently laid aside, as it wasn't published until 1868, posthumously.