Felix Mendelssohn

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Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 1809 – 4 November 1847) – born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn – was a German composer, pianist, organist, and conductor of the early Romantic period. Mendelssohn wrote symphonies, concerti, oratorios, piano music and chamber music. His best-known works include his Overture and incidental music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the Italian Symphony, the Scottish Symphony, the overture The Hebrides, his mature Violin Concerto, and his String Octet.

Mendelssohn was the son of a banker, Abraham, who was himself the son of the famous Jewish philosopher, Moses Mendelssohn, and of Lea Salomon, a member of the Itzig family. Abraham sought to renounce the Jewish religion; his children were first brought up without religious education and were baptized as Lutherans in 1816.

The family moved to Berlin in 1812. His sister Fanny Mendelssohn (later Fanny Hensel), became a well-known pianist and amateur composer; originally Abraham had thought that she, rather than her brother, might be the more musical.

Mendelssohn is often considered the greatest child prodigy after Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He began taking piano lessons from his mother when he was six, and at seven was tutored by Marie Bigot in Paris. From 1817 he studied composition with Carl Friedrich Zelter in Berlin. He probably made his first public concert appearance at the age of nine, when he participated in a chamber music concert. He was also a prolific composer as a child and wrote his first published work, a piano quartet, by the time he was thirteen.

As an adolescent, Felix’s works were often performed at home with a private orchestra for the associates of his wealthy parents amongst the intellectual elite of Berlin. Mendelssohn wrote his first twelve symphonies in his early teens (more specifically, from ages twelve to fourteen). These works were ignored for over a century, but are now recorded and heard occasionally in concerts. At fifteen he wrote his first acknowledged symphony for full orchestra, his opus 11 in C minor in 1824. At the age of sixteen he wrote his String Octet in E Flat Major, the first work which showed the full power of his genius, and, together with his overture to Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which he wrote a year later, the best known of his early works. He wrote incidental music for the play in 1842, including the famous Wedding March.

In 1829 Mendelssohn paid his first visit to England, where he was introduced to influential musical circles. Felix had great success, conducting his First Symphony and playing in public and private concerts. On subsequent visits, he met with Queen Victoria and her musical husband Prince Albert, both of whom were great admirers of his music. In the course of ten visits to Britain during his life, he won a strong following, and the country inspired two of his most famous works, the Hebrides Overture and the Scottish Symphony (no.3). His oratorio Elijah premiered in Birmingham on August 26, 1846.

In 1835, he was appointed as conductor of the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig. This appointment was extremely important for him as he felt himself to be a German and wished to play a leading part in his country’s musical life. Despite efforts by the king of Prussia to lure him to Berlin, Mendelssohn sought to develop the musical life of Leipzig and in 1843 he founded the Leipzig Conservatory.

Mendelssohn’s personal life was conventional. His marriage to Cécile Jeanrenaud in March of 1837 was very happy and the couple had five children. Felix was an accomplished painter of watercolor, and his enormous correspondence shows that he could also be a witty writer (in both German and English – and sometimes accompanied by humorous sketches and cartoons in the text).

Mendelssohn suffered from bad health in the final years of his life, probably aggravated by nervous problems and overwork, and he was greatly distressed by the death of his sister Fanny in May 1847. Felix Mendelssohn died later that same year after a series of strokes, in Leipzig. He is buried in the Dreifaltigkeitsfriedhof (Trinity Cemetery) I in Berlin-Kreuzberg.

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Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 11

This was completed on 31 March 1824, when the composer was only 15 years old. The symphony was dedicated to the Royal Philharmonic Society, which performed the London première on May 25, 1829, with Mendelssohn conducting. For this performance, Mendelssohn orchestrated the scherzo from his Octet Op. 20 as an alternative third movement for the symphony. The work was premièred at a private gathering on 14 November 1824 to honor his sister Fanny Mendelssohn’s 19th birthday.

The symphony is in four movements:

Allegro di molto
Andante
Menuetto: Allegro molto
Allegro con fuoco

In the video, the symphony is performed by the Frankfurt Radio Symphony  Orchestra conducted by Paavo Järvi. The concert took place June 29, 2014 in Kloster Eberbach at the Rheingau Musik Festival.

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Symphony No. 2 in B-flat major – Lobgesang (Hymn of Praise), Op. 52

This is “A Symphony-Cantata on Words of the Bible, for Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra”. It requires two sopranos and a tenor as soloists, along with a chorus and orchestra.

Structurally, it consists of three purely orchestral movements

Maestoso con moto – Allegro
Allegretto un poco agitato
Adagio religioso

followed by ten movements for chorus and/or soloists and orchestra. The English titles of the ten movements are:

All men, all things, all that have life and breath (Chorus)
Praise thou the Lord, O ye Spirit (Soprano Solo and Semi-Chorus)
Sing ye Praise (Tenor Recitative and Aria)
All ye that cried unto the Lord (Chorus)
I waited for the Lord (Soprano Duet and Chorus)
The sorrows of Death (Tenor Aria)
The Night is Departing (Chorus)
Let all men praise the Lord (Chorale of Now Thank We All Our God)
My song shall be always Thy Mercy (Soprano and Tenor Duet)
Ye nations, offer to the Lord (Chorus)

In the video, the work is performed by Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and the Netherlands Radio Choir conducted by Markus Stenz. Soloists are: Rosemary Joshua, soprano, Rosanne van Sandwijk, soprano, Attilio Glaser, tenor, and Maxim Rysanov, viola. The concert took place on January 23, 2015, at TivoliVredenburg, Utrecht, Holland.

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Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Op. 56

This symphony – known as the “Scottish” – was composed between 1829 and 1842.
It has four movements:
1. Andante con moto — Allegro un poco agitato (A minor)
2. Vivace non troppo (F major)
3. Adagio (A major)
4. Allegro vivacissimo — Allegro maestoso assai (A minor → A major)

In this video the symphony is played by Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia conducted by Rumon Gamba. The concert took place 21 October 2014 in Palacio de la Ópera de A Coruña, Spain.

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Symphony No. 4 in A major, Op. 90

This symphony – known as the “Italian” – was finished in Berlin in 1833 in response to an invitation for a symphony from the London (now Royal) Philharmonic Society. He conducted the first performance himself in London on 13 May 1833 at a London Philharmonic Society concert. It is in four movements:
1. Allegro vivace (A major)
2. Andante con moto (D minor)
3. Con moto moderato (A major)
4. Presto and Finale: Saltarello (A minor)

In the video, the symphony is played by Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Paavo Järvi. The concert took place on 16 June 2012 in Alte Oper Frankfurt, Germany.

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Symphony No. 5 in D major/D minor, Op. 107 (the Reformation)

This was composed in 1830 in honor of the 300th anniversary of the Presentation of the Augsburg Confession. The Confession is a key document of Lutheranism and its Presentation to Emperor Charles V in June 1530 was a momentous event of the Protestant Reformation. This symphony was written for a full orchestra and was Mendelssohn’s second extended symphony. It was not published until 1868, 21 years after the composer’s death – hence it’s numbering as ‘5’. Although the symphony is not very frequently performed, it is better known today than when it was originally published.

The symphony is in four movements:
I. Andante – Allegro con fuoco – 0:30
II. Allegro vivace – 12:40
III. Andante – 18:22
IV. Choral: Ein’ feste Burg ist unser Gott. Andante con moto – Allegro vivace – Allegro maestoso – 22:59

In the video, the symphony is performed by hr-Sinfonieorchester (Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra) conducted by Jérémie Rhorer.

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Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64

This is Felix Mendelssohn’s last large orchestral work. It forms an important part of the violin repertoire and is one of the most popular and most frequently performed violin concertos of all time.
The concerto consists of three movements:
1. Allegro molto appassionato (E minor) – 0:32
2. Andante (C major) – 13:46
3. Allegretto non troppo – Allegro molto vivace (E major) – 21:18

In the video, the concerto is played by the violin virtuoso Hilary Hahn with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Paavo Järvi. The concert took place on 11th June 2012 in Seoul Arts Centre Concert Hall in South Korea.

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Piano Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 25

This was written in 1830–31, around the same time as his fourth symphony (“Italian”), and premiered in Munich in October 1831.

It has three movements:

1. Molto allegro con fuoco, 2. Andante, 3. Presto—Molto allegro e vivace.

In the video, the concerto is performed by pianist Stephen Hough with the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by David Robertson. The concert took place Sunday the 17th of November 2019 in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

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A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Overture, Op.21

In the video, this work is performed by Moscow City Symphony “Russian Philharmonic” conducted by Michail Jurowski.

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Concert overture The Hebrides, Op. 26.

In the video, the overture is performed by London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner.