Felix Mendelssohn - Biography
Felix Mendelssohn was born on February 3 1809 in Hamburg and died on November 4th 1847 in Leipzig. Mendelssohn was the son of a prominent banker Abraham and his wife Leah nee Solomon also came from a prominent Jewish family. Felix’s grandfather was the famed philosopher and scholar Moses Mendelssohn. Abraham converted his family to Christianity (Lutheran) when Felix was seven and took the middle name of Bartholdy. Mendelssohn and his older sister Fanny developed prodigious musical gifts at an early age. In addition to his musical abilities by the time he was ten Mendelssohn’s general intellectual gifts were astounding. The Mendelssohn family moved to Berlin when Felix was only two. Abraham had arranged to study by the time he was nine with the foremost music pedagogue in Berlin Carl Friedrich Zelter, by the time he was nine he was performing as a pianist and a year or so later he stated composing. Zelter was musical advisor to the greatest of German writers Goethe. Goethe was in his mid seventies and generally considered the greatest man in Europe .Zelter introduced Mendelssohn to Goethe and the young teenager more then held his own with the great man. Zelter was very conservative in his musical tastes and it was actually the teenaged Mendelssohn who introduced Goethe to Beethoven’s works which Zelter didn’t particularly like.
Mendelssohn even surpassed Mozart as the greatest of teenage age composers. He composed his superb String Symphonies at thirteen, The First Symphony at fifteen and two out and out masterpieces the String Octet at sixteen and the Midsummer’s Night Dream Overture at seventeen. It is not just the technical skill but the profound insight and originality of these works that are astonishing. Mendelssohn though at an early age became a superb conductor and one of early landmarks was his performance in Berlin of Bach’s St. Matthew’s Passion in 1829, the great work had lain dormant for a century before this revival. Whilst under the intoxicant of Bach Mendelssohn wrote a work to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the Lutheran church Symphony # 5 “Reformation” whose finale makes heavy use of Martin Luther’s hymn A Mighty Fortress is our God.
Mendelssohn made what was the first of many tours of England at the end of the momentous year of 1829. A visit to the storm tossed Hebrides Islands in Scotland inspired him to compose one of his finest works the Hebrides Overture. He also wrote the well known Piano Concerto # 1 in G minor for this tour. Mendelssohn spent a considerable amount of time in Italy in the early 1830’s where he made the acquaintance of Berlioz who though older then Mendelssohn was still studying on a French Prix de Rome scholarship prize. Though they were to remain casual friends Mendelssohn hated Berlioz’s music. The main musical dividend of the trip was the composition of Mendelssohn’s celebrated Symphony # 4 “Italian. He also during these tours developed his considerable skills as a painter and witty travel writer and diarist. Mendelssohn was a very successful touring pianist and conductor throughout Germany; he couldn’t get a permanent post in Imperial Berlin possibly because of his Jewish origin. He did however get a permanent post in Leipzig with the Gewandhaus Orchestra in 1835 that he was to make one of the finest in the world. He was to marry Cecile Jeanrenaud in 1837 they would have a happy marriage in the ten years allotted to them and have five children. Mendelssohn wrote his once famous and now neglected Oratorio St. Paul in 1836. This is as good a time as any to get into one of the reasons for Mendelssohn’s comparative decline in popularity and esteem, the Germany and England of his time were devoutly religious (particularly the upper middle class) and Mendelssohn wrote a large amount of lovely sacred music many for the hundreds of glee clubs in Germany and England they are charming but deliberately avoided the profundity of a Bach or Handel and have not survived their times.
Mendelssohn formed a friendship with his contemporary and native Leipziger Robert Schumann. One of their mutual accomplishments was the fervent support for Schubert barely ten years dead but who was true worth was not yet known to the musical world. Schumann discovered the manuscript of Schubert’s “Great” C Major Symphony that Mendelssohn would perform through Europe often to derision or incomprehension. Mendelssohn was eventually to found the Leipzig Conservatory that was to become a bastion of conservative musical thought in Germany. Upon Queen Victoria’s ascension to the English throne in 1837 and her marriage a few years later to Prince Albert, a German Mendelssohn was virtually to become the court composer of England and close friend to both of them. (Albert was very musical). The landscape of Scotland was again to inspire Mendelssohn to write his finest Symphony #3“Scottish” (his Second Symphony ‘Hymn of Praise” is more of a cantata with an orchestral first movement) Mendelssohn was writing many piano pieces all lovely but with a few exceptions notably the Variations Seriouses and the celebrated series of pieces “Songs Without Words” have not become part of the standard repertoire. His chamber music has finally come out of their undeserved period of neglect particularly his superb Quartets, Quintets, Sextet and the two Piano Trios.
Mendelssohn in the 1840’s completed his incidental music for a Midsummer’s Night Dream and was able to recapture the magic of his Overture written seventeen years before. The Wedding March from the incidental music became very popular particularly in England and America independent of the concert hall and to this day is the standard recessional of every traditional Wedding. Mendelssohn was to write his very famous Violin Concerto in E minor in 1844 for the concertmaster of his orchestra Ferdinand David. He was to have a triumph with his sacred Oratorio Elijah of 1847. This was unexpectedly to be the last year of life; he was to have a terrible shock when his beloved sister Fanny died of stroke at 39. This put him into a serious depression which he tried to overcome with frantic work which weakened his strained mind and body and he died of a cerebral hemorrhage on November 4th 1847 to the great shock and sadness of the musical world. His young wife was to follow him five years later.
A sinister postscript was to emerge. Mendelssohn’s conservatism and easy success drew the wrath of a younger colleague Richard Wagner who was to have posthumous revenge by making Mendelssohn one of the primary villains of his notorious essay “Judaism in Music”. This calumny was to have a disgraceful conclusion when Mendelssohn was to become an outlawed composer during the Third Reich in Germany. His Statue that stood outside of the Leipzig Gewandhaus was pulled down. Mendelssohn is now thankfully restored in Germany.
Mendelssohn as noted earlier is a strange case considered an immortal for most of the nineteenth century he was eclipsed by Wagner and ironically by a great admirer Brahms. Mendelssohn music always beautifully constructed didn’t try to reach the heroic heights of the late romantics. His friend Robert Schumann didn’t have his technical brilliance but was more often inspired and poetic. His being banned in his homeland had certainly didn’t help his reputation. The nature of music making during his time was geared to amateur musicians performing at intimate concerts for friends and family had disappeared and so much of Mendelssohn’s music geared to that audience faded away. Luckily there have been many superb recordings of virtually all of Mendelssohn’s music have been made and we can judge besides the handful of recognized masterpieces the considerable worth of the balance of his music.