Following in the footsteps of his distant "great-uncle" Felix, Arnold Mendelssohn (1853-1933) achieved a high reputation, particularly in the field of Protestant church music, in which his famous relative had already excelled. In contrast, his serious engagement with the classical-romantic instrumental genres only began during the First World War, as if the composer wanted to reassure himself in the tradition before the old structures collapsed. He was already approaching seventy when he wrote his Violin Concerto and, immediately afterwards, the second of his three symphonies – two witty masquerades whose broad field between expressive meditation and cheerful finale offers room for many reminiscences, but never leads to the epigonal: He who juggles with the signs is not at the mercy of the past. He masters it with aplomb.