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. ...

An image of Leipzig, the city that Mendelssohn promoted to the cultural capital of Europe and where his Violin Concerto in E minor was first presented. Mendelssohn spent the summer of 1844 touring for a series of concerts for the eighth time in England. His holiday followed at the end of July in the small town of Bad Soden, near Frankfurt. During his stay there, he composed this Violin Concerto in E minor, Opus 64 . It premiered in Leipzig seven months later, on March 13, 1845. The concerto was performed by his friend, the eminent violinist Ferdinand David, who had assisted Mendelssohn in various technical details relating to the violin part. Mendelssohn was too ill to direct the concerto and ceded the director's job to Nils Wilhelm Gade's assistant. Movements : I. Allegro molto appassionato The first movement begins with a lively but simple melody where the violin hovers over the orchestra singing cheerfully -  unusual for a minor tone. The theme develops and passes to the ...

Mendelsohn composed the introduction to Shakespear's play"A Midsummer Night's Dream" in 1826, when he was just 17 years old. It was, however, in October 1843 that he added various parts of music for a performance of his work in Potsdam, near Berlin. All 11 parties have had tremendous success. Indeed, it is a sign of Mendelssohn's genius that despite 17 years of mediation, the style of the late compositions of stage music is entirely consistent with that of the introduction. The "Wedding March" is played after the end of the IV act and celebrates the simultaneous marriage of three couples. Today, the Wedding March is the melody that accompanies almost exclusively every wedding ceremony. It begins with a fanfare and then sinks majestically into the excellent procession that has accompanied so many marriages. A lighter, less imposing march continues as if the fairies of Shakespeare's work themselves were crossing the temple. The ritual music is repeat...

Raised by parents who knew and could appreciate the good and the beautiful and possessed the pretense to properly cultivate them, Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy lived a comfortable and balanced life, which allowed him to serve variously and with dedication the art of music. The uninterrupted life that ensured him family well-being, as well as the broad education he acquired, helped him to ideally develop his artistic gifts, so that he became one of the most popular composers of his time. As well as being a great composer, he was an excellent pianist, a good violonist, a wonderful organ player and an inspirational conductor. There were many happy times for the German musician who saw his music conquer foreign places, while he remained persistently faithful to the musical tradition of his land. Nevertheless, he accepted well-intentioned the beneficial effects of the natural environment which he observed and measured with combinations of his feelings in his numerous journeys an...

from Book 5, Op. 62 The term "Song Without Words" was introduced by Mendelssohn to describe a solo piano that employs a singing melody accompanied by bass (left hand). He published eight books with such "Songs" over a period of thirteen years. What we present here comes from the Fifth Book published in 1843. Mendelssohn wrote a total of 48 compositions of this kind. These are familiar miniatures that were written to be played in the evenings at friendly gatherings. Mendelssohn deliberately wrote these songmelodies without words, because he thought words would limit the emotional wealth he wanted to express. This short work, written in 1842-4, is a dark and imposing mourning march. Perfectly crafted and measured, it conveys a sense of gentle melancholy and like almost all of these pieces, it is unpretentious and sincere.

Felix Mendelssohn was born with all the privileges and without any of the adversity usually associated with the inpomplete genius who fights for recognition. His grandfather, Moses, was a self-made man of letters and a defender of the rights of the Jews. His father Abraham was a banker and got rich by breaking the embargo imposed by Napoleon on England in 1810. Shortly after Felix was born in 1809, the family left Hamburg and settled in Berlin. A family of talents One of the family's four children, Felix, showed off his talent at an early age, as did his older sister Fanny, who in more liberal times would have become a composer. It was she who exerted a great influence on Mendelssohn, who took his first piano lessons from his mother Lea, who was an accomplished pianist. But he soon got the teachers who would develop his great talent. Legendary teacher Carl Friedrich Zelter, aformer stonemason, introduced the nine-year old Mendelssohn to the Berlin society. Portrait of Mendelssohn ...