Felix Mendelssohn

• 1. A Jewish Son In A Christian Home

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  Felix Mendelssohn was born on the 3rd of February 1809 in Hamburg. His father Abraham Mendelssohn was a banker who had converted to Christianity before Felix's birth. The family moved to Berlin in 1811 to escape French reprisals against their banking firm. They lived in an intellectual salon where visitors included Wilhelm von Humboldt and mathematician Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet. Felix grew up without religious education until he was baptized at age seven into the Reformed Christian church. His grandfather Moses Mendelssohn was a famous Jewish philosopher whose works Felix later championed. The name Bartholdy was added to his surname by his mother's brother Jakob Salomon Bartholdy. This change represented a decisive break with Jewish traditions according to Abraham Mendelssohn. He stated that no Christian Mendelssohn could exist just as no Jewish Confucius existed.

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• 2. The Prodigy And The Teacher

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  Mendelssohn began piano lessons at age six under his mother Lea Salomon. At seven years old he studied counterpoint with Carl Friedrich Zelter in Berlin. Zelter had been recommended by Sarah Levy who owned a collection of Bach manuscripts. These early studies shaped Mendelssohn's conservative musical tastes throughout his life. Between ages twelve and fourteen he wrote thirteen string symphonies for private concerts. His first published work appeared when he was thirteen years old. A piano quartet titled Opus One came out through the house of Schlesinger. By sixteen he composed his String Octet in E-flat major which critics call the beginning of his maturity. The Overture to Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream followed a year later in 1826. Ignaz Moscheles taught him briefly but confessed he had little to offer such a gifted student. They became lifelong friends despite their different temperaments.

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• 3. Reviving Bach And Traveling Europe

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  In 1829 Mendelssohn conducted a performance of Bach's St Matthew Passion in Berlin. This event revived interest in Bach's music across Germany and eventually all of Europe. The orchestra and choir came from the Berlin Singakademie. Four years earlier his grandmother Bella Salomon had given him a copy of the manuscript. He earned widespread acclaim at age twenty for this achievement. During his Grand Tour he visited Vienna Florence Milan Rome and Naples between 1830 and 1835. These travels inspired major orchestral works including the Hebrides Overture and the Scottish Symphony. He visited Fingal's Cave on the Hebridean isle of Staffa where he scribbled the opening theme on the spot. The Italian Symphony emerged from his time in Italy though he never allowed its publication during his lifetime. His first visit to England occurred in 1829 when he was only twenty years old.

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• 4. Leipzig Conservatory And Professional Life

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  Mendelssohn accepted the position of director at the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra in 1835. He divided his professional time between Britain and Düsseldorf before settling there. In 1843 he founded the Leipzig Conservatory to promote musical education. Ignaz Moscheles and Robert Schumann joined him as staff members. Other prominent musicians like Ferdinand David and Joseph Joachim also became teachers. Mendelssohn conducted historical concerts featuring eighteenth-century music alongside contemporary works. Richard Wagner submitted an early symphony score which Mendelssohn lost or mislaid. The composer revived interest in Franz Schubert by premiering his Ninth Symphony in 1839. Friedrich Wilhelm IV invited Mendelssohn to head reforms in Berlin but financial promises were broken. He returned to Leipzig after spending some time writing church music for the king. A monument to J.S. Bach stood unveiled in 1843 thanks to proceeds from three concerts.

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• 5. Britain Jenny Lind And Family Ties

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  Mendelssohn made ten visits to Britain lasting about twenty months total. He won a strong following that enabled him to make a good impression on British musical life. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert greatly admired his music during these trips. His relationship with Swedish soprano Jenny Lind began in October 1844. Papers confirm he wrote passionate love letters to her entailing threats of suicide if she did not join him. These letters were destroyed after her death according to modern scholarship. He tailored the aria Hear Ye Israel in Elijah to Lind's voice though she sang it only after his death. In 1847 he attended a London performance of Meyerbeer's Robert le diable solely to hear Lind sing Alice. Upon his death she established the Mendelssohn Scholarship Foundation which awarded its first prize to Arthur Sullivan in 1856. He married Cécile Jeanrenaud on the 28th of March 1837. They had five children including Carl who became a historian and Paul who pioneered aniline dye manufacturing.

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• 6. Conservative Style And Major Works

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  Mendelssohn's mature symphonies are numbered approximately in order of publication rather than composition. The Symphony No. 1 in C minor was written when he was fifteen years old. It showed influences from Beethoven and Carl Maria von Weber. The Scottish Symphony took over a decade to complete starting in 1829 at Holyrood Palace. He never employed any identified Scottish folk melodies despite evoking Scotland's atmosphere. His Violin Concerto in E minor Opus Sixty-Four premiered in 1844 for Ferdinand David. Joseph Joachim called it one of four great violin concertos alongside those by Beethoven Brahms and Bruch. Songs Without Words remain his most famous solo piano compositions with eight cycles each containing six pieces. These works became standard parlour recital items even during his lifetime. Critics sometimes underrate their musical value due to overwhelming popularity. Charles Rosen described them as beautiful yet potentially insipid compared to other Romantic masterpieces.

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• 7. Suppression And Modern Rehabilitation

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  The Nazi regime banned performance and publication of Mendelssohn's works citing his Jewish origin. They asked composers like Carl Orff to rewrite incidental music for A Midsummer Night's Dream. The German Mendelssohn Scholarship for students at the Leipzig Conservatory was discontinued in 1934. A monument erected in 1892 was removed by Nazis in 1936 though replaced again in 2008. Richard Wagner wrote an anti-Jewish pamphlet Das Judenthum in der Musik three years after Mendelssohn's death. He claimed Mendelssohn lacked heart-searching effect despite having ample talents. Friedrich Nietzsche expressed admiration contrasting him with Teutonic Romanticism. By the early twentieth century critics like Bernard Shaw condemned his music for Victorian cultural insularity. Appreciation developed since mid-twentieth century alongside biographies placing achievements in context. R. Larry Todd noted intensifying revival over past decades regarding this paradoxically familiar composer. His image has been largely rehabilitated as musicians return to view him from new perspectives. Recordings of virtually all published works are now available on broadcasts and concert halls.

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