MusiLLection

  "The Bay of Naples"  by William James Müller . When Felix Mendelssohn visited Naples, he was struck by the city’s poverty yet captivated by the Neapolitan saltarello , which inspired the driving spirit of his Italian Symphony . Encouraged by his close friend Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , Felix Mendelssohn embarked on an extended journey to Italy in 1830–1831. Arriving in October, he was immediately struck by the country’s noise, colour, and irrepressible vitality. His travels took him through Venice and on to Rome, where a solemn procession of cardinals and the sound of a choir at St Peter’s Basilica made a deep impression—an echo of which can be felt in the symphony’s second movement. In Naples, Mendelssohn was both shocked by the widespread poverty he encountered and fascinated by the exuberance of local folk life. The rhythmic energy of southern Italian dances left a lasting mark on his imagination, finding its most direct expression in the fiery finale of the sympho...

A painting of Oberon and Titania, characters from William Shakespeare's "Α Midsummer Night's Dream", from which Mendelssohn inspired the famous "Wedding March". Symphonies: No. 1 in C minor, Op. 11 No. 2 in B flat major, Op. 52, "Lobgesang" No. 3 in A minor, Op. 56, "The Scottish" No. 4 in A major, Op. 90 "Italian"  No. 5 in D major/minor, Op. 107 "Reformation" Overtures: A Midsummer Night's Dream, in E major for orchestra, Op. 21 The Hebrides or Fingal's Cave, in B minor for orchestra, Op. 26 The Beautiful Melusine), in F major for orchestra, Op. 32 Concertos: Violin Concerto No. 1 in D minor, for violin and strings Violin Concerto No. 2 in E minor, Op. 64  Piano Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 25 Piano Concerto No. 2 in D minor, Op. 40  Chamber music: String Octet in E-flat major, Op. 20  Cello Sonata No. 1 in B flat major, Op. 45 Cello Sonata No. 2 in D major, Op. 58 String Quartet No. 1 in E flat major, Op. ...

Leipzig, the city Mendelssohn shaped into a European musical center and where his Violin Concerto in E minor was first performed. Felix Mendelssohn  composed his Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64 during the summer of 1844, following an exhausting concert tour—his eighth visit to England. He completed the work while spending a period of rest in Bad Soden , near Frankfurt, a setting that allowed him the calm necessary for focused composition. The concerto was premiered in Leipzig on March 13, 1845, with the solo part performed by Ferdinand David , concertmaster of the Gewandhaus Orchestra and a close friend of the composer. David had worked closely with Mendelssohn on technical refinements of the violin writing, ensuring that virtuosity and musical expression remained perfectly balanced. Mendelssohn, already in fragile health, was unable to conduct the premiere, and the task was entrusted to Niels Wilhelm Gade . This concerto stands as one of the most influential violin concerto...

Felix Mendelssohn composed the overture to Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 1826, at the astonishingly young age of seventeen. Nearly two decades later, in October 1843, he returned to the work, adding a complete set of incidental music for a staged performance in Potsdam, near Berlin. Despite the long interval between the two creative periods, the stylistic unity of the music is remarkable—an eloquent testament to Mendelssohn’s consistency of imagination and refinement of craft. The full cycle of eleven musical numbers was met with immediate and overwhelming success. Among them, the Wedding March soon emerged as the most celebrated. It appears at the conclusion of Act IV, accompanying the joyful resolution of the drama and the simultaneous marriages of three couples. Over time, the piece transcended its theatrical origins and entered everyday musical life, becoming the near-universal symbol of the wedding ceremony. The march opens with a brilliant fanfare, instantly com...

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy — composer, conductor, and one of the most cultivated musical minds of the Romantic era. Raised in a cultivated family environment that genuinely valued intellectual refinement, beauty, and education, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy enjoyed a balanced and privileged upbringing that allowed him to serve the art of music with rare dedication and serenity. The stability of his family life, combined with an exceptionally broad education, enabled Mendelssohn to develop his artistic gifts in ideal conditions. As a result, he became one of the most admired and widely respected composers of his time—both during his lifetime and shortly thereafter. Beyond his achievements as a composer, Mendelssohn was an outstanding pianist, a capable violinist, an accomplished organist, and an inspiring conductor. His versatility as a musician was matched by clarity of thought and stylistic elegance, qualities that permeate his entire oeuvre. Although his music traveled widely and ...

from Book 5, Op. 62 The term “Song Without Words” was introduced by Felix Mendelssohn to describe a solo piano piece built around a lyrical, vocal-style melody supported by a discreet harmonic accompaniment, usually entrusted to the left hand. Between 1829 and 1845, Mendelssohn published eight books of such works, forming one of the most distinctive and influential piano cycles of the Romantic era. The piece presented here comes from Book V, Op. 62 , published in 1843. Mendelssohn ultimately composed 48 Songs Without Words , intimate piano miniatures often intended for domestic music-making, frequently performed during informal evening gatherings rather than public concert settings. Mendelssohn consciously avoided attaching texts to these compositions. He believed that words could confine or over-determine the emotional content of the music, whereas a purely instrumental “song” allowed the listener greater freedom of imagination and personal emotional response. This particular pi...

Felix Mendelssohn, whose refined imagination translated landscape and atmosphere into music. Felix Mendelssohn was born into privilege, free from the material hardship so often associated with the Romantic myth of the struggling genius. His grandfather, Moses Mendelssohn, was a prominent philosopher and defender of Jewish civil rights, while his father Abraham, a successful banker, secured the family’s prosperity. Shortly after Felix’s birth in 1809, the family moved from Hamburg to Berlin, placing him at the heart of an intellectually vibrant world. A family of talents Felix was one of four gifted siblings. His older sister Fanny Mendelssohn possessed extraordinary musical talent and, in more liberal times, might have pursued a public career as a composer. She exerted a profound influence on Felix throughout his life. His first piano lessons came from his mother, Lea, an accomplished pianist, before his exceptional abilities attracted outstanding teachers. Felix Mendelssohn at the a...