Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, influential composer and conductor of the German Romanticism

 

Life:

Mendelssohn Bartholdy, a pupil of Johann Nepomuk Hummel (piano), Eduard Rietz (violin) and Carl Friedrich Zelter (composition) among others, first appeared in public as a pianist together with his sister at the age of nine; in 1821 he became known with works by Carl Maria von Weber. In the same year he played for Goethe in Weimar and in 1825 attracted the attention of Luigi Cherubini in Paris with his Piano Quartet No. 3 in B minor. In 1829 Mendelssohn Bartholdy conducted the first revival of Bach's 'St. Matthew Passion' in Berlin at the suggestion of Zelter, thus laying the foundation for the renaissance of Bach in the 19^th century. After study trips to Italy, Paris and London, he became musical director in Düsseldorf in 1833. In 1835 he was appointed Kapellmeister of the Gewandhaus in Leipzig. Under his direction the Gewandhaus Orchestra developed into an excellent ensemble. As principal conductor, he did not conduct the orchestra from the instrument, but with the baton from the desk. Mendelssohn Bartholdy made Leipzig a musical centre of European importance and was co-founder of the first conservatoire of music in Germany in 1843.

 

Work:

Being one of the most brilliant figures of his time both as a pianist and as a conductor, Mendelssohn Bartholdy is one of the composers whose status had not always been judged objectively. Antagonized by Richard Wagner, regarded as 'a lovely incident in German music' by Friedrich Nietzsche and denigrated as a Jew by the National Socialists, he was reproached for having remained static in his development after his early brilliance (overture of Midsummer Night's Dream, Octet, Symphony No. 1) and of having failed to give any fresh impetus as a 'conservative classicist' of music. But the forms developed or continued by him (concert overtures, organ sonatas, Lieder ohne Worte, scherzos) show an accomplished mastery, particularly of the small lyric form. His clear instrumentation and supple melodic lines are brilliant.

 

Works:

Opera: Die Hochzeit des Camacho (1827, after Miguel Cervantes).

Symphonies: 12 String Symphonies (182123); No. 1 in C minor (1824); No. 2 in Bb major (183940, symphony-cantata »Lobgesang«); No. 3 in A minor (1842, »Scotch«); No. 4 in A major (183233, »Italian«); No. 5 in D major (182930, »Reformation«).

Incidental music and concert overtures: A Midsummer Night's Dream (overture 1826, completed in 1842, after Shakespeare); Hebrides or Fingal's Cave (1830, new version 1832); Meeresstille und glückliche Fahrt (182833, after Goethe); Die schöne Melusine (183335, after Franz Grillparzer); Ruy Blas (1839, after Victor Hugo).

Instrumental concertos: 2 Concertos for two pianos and orchestra in E major (1823) and in Ab major (1824); 2 Piano Concertos in G minor (1831) and in D minor (1837); Violin Concerto in E minor (183844).

Chamber music: Octet (1825, revised in 1832, for strings); 2 String Quintets (182645); 3 Piano Quartets (182125); 7 String Quartets (182947).

Piano works: Lieder ohne Worte (182945).

Organ works: 3 Preludes and Fugues (183237); 6 Sonatas (184445).

Oratorios: St. Paul (183236); Elijah (184546, new version 1847); Christus (1847).

Other vocal music: Choral cantata Die erste Walpurgisnacht (183132, final version 184243); motets, psalms, a-cappella choruses (including in Op. 59, 183743, as No. 3 Abschied vom Wald, O Täler weit, o Höhen, and in Op. 50, 183840, as No. 2 Wer hat dich du schöner Wald, after Joseph von Eichendorff), duos with piano, songs.