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94-616: Bettina von Arnim writes of Wetterau in her text Diary of a Child in the chapter "Journey to the Wetterau". The Wetterau is located north of Frankfurt am Main , on the eastern side of the Taunus and south-west of the Vogelsberg . The main part of the region is taken up by the political region Wetteraukreis . The region got its name from the small creek Wetter , but the region is crossed by several other creeks and rivers - for example,

188-501: A Child ( German : Goethes Briefwechsel mit einem Kinde ), which purported to be a correspondence between herself and the poet. The book is in large part fictitious. Genuine sonnets of Goethe in it were addressed, not to her, but to Minna Herzlieb . As a work of fiction, the book has been praised. She continued to write, inspire, and publish until 20 January 1859, when she died in Berlin , aged 73, surrounded by her children. Her grave

282-528: A bastion of this anti-radical outlook. After a long period of relative denigration due to changing musical tastes and antisemitism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, his creative originality has been re-evaluated. He is now among the most popular composers of the Romantic era. Felix Mendelssohn was born on 3 February 1809, in Hamburg , at the time an independent city-state , in the same house where,

376-600: A close personal friend, Ignaz Moscheles, was of an older generation and equally conservative in outlook. Moscheles preserved this conservative attitude at the Leipzig Conservatory until his own death in 1870. Mendelssohn married Cécile Charlotte Sophie Jeanrenaud (10 October 1817 – 25 September 1853), the daughter of a French Reformed Church clergyman, on 28 March 1837. The couple had five children: Carl, Marie, Paul, Lili and Felix August. The second youngest child, Felix August, contracted measles in 1844 and

470-635: A composer, who both greatly admired his music. Mendelssohn's oratorio Elijah was commissioned by the Birmingham Triennial Music Festival and premiered on 26 August 1846, at the Town Hall, Birmingham . It was composed to a German text translated into English by William Bartholomew , who authored and translated many of Mendelssohn's works during his time in England. On his last visit to Britain in 1847, Mendelssohn

564-697: A group of works of his early maturity: the String Octet (1825), the Overture A Midsummer Night's Dream (1826), which in its finished form also owes much to the influence of Adolf Bernhard Marx , at the time a close friend of Mendelssohn, and the two early string quartets : Op. 12 (1829) and Op. 13 (1827), which both show a remarkable grasp of the techniques and ideas of Beethoven's last quartets that Mendelssohn had been closely studying. These four works show an intuitive command of form, harmony, counterpoint , colour, and compositional technique, which in

658-466: A letter to a stranger, as a place "where it is to be hoped there is still music, but no more sorrow or partings." While Mendelssohn was often presented as equable, happy, and placid in temperament, particularly in the detailed family memoirs published by his nephew Sebastian Hensel after the composer's death, this was misleading. The music historian R. Larry Todd notes "the remarkable process of idealization" of Mendelssohn's character "that crystallized in

752-512: A musical career until it became clear that he was seriously dedicated. Mendelssohn grew up in an intellectual environment. Frequent visitors to the salon organised by his parents at their home in Berlin included artists, musicians and scientists, among them Wilhelm and Alexander von Humboldt , and the mathematician Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet (whom Mendelssohn's sister Rebecka would later marry). The musician Sarah Rothenburg has written of

846-465: A number of chamber works. His first work, a piano quartet, was published when he was 13. It was probably Abraham Mendelssohn who procured the publication of this quartet by the house of Schlesinger . In 1824 the 15-year-old wrote his first symphony for full orchestra (in C minor, Op. 11). At age 16 Mendelssohn wrote his String Octet in E-flat major , a work which has been regarded as "mark[ing]

940-567: A regional identity that even survived increasing urban differentiation. Four stabilizing elements characterize the transition from medieval to modern times in the Wetterau: 50°17′N 8°57′E  /  50.283°N 8.950°E  / 50.283; 8.950 Bettina von Arnim Bettina von Arnim (the Countess of Arnim ) (4 April 1785 – 20 January 1859), born Elisabeth Catharina Ludovica Magdalena Brentano ,

1034-668: A series of strokes. His grandfather Moses, Fanny, and both his parents had all died from similar apoplexies . Although he had been generally meticulous in the management of his affairs, he died intestate . Mendelssohn's funeral was held at the Paulinerkirche , Leipzig, and he was buried at the Dreifaltigkeitsfriedhof I in Berlin- Kreuzberg . The pallbearers included Moscheles, Schumann and Niels Gade . Mendelssohn had once described death, in

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1128-400: A staged performance but to evoke a literary theme in performance on a concert platform; this was a genre which became a popular form in musical Romanticism . In 1824 Mendelssohn studied under the composer and piano virtuoso Ignaz Moscheles , who confessed in his diaries that he had little to teach him. Moscheles and Mendelssohn became close colleagues and lifelong friends. The year 1827 saw

1222-609: A strong following, which enabled him to make a good impression on British musical life. He composed and performed, and also edited for British publishers the first critical editions of oratorios of Handel and of the organ music of J. S. Bach. Scotland inspired two of his most famous works: the overture The Hebrides (also known as Fingal's Cave ); and the Scottish Symphony (Symphony No. 3). An English Heritage blue plaque commemorating Mendelssohn's residence in London

1316-425: A variety of works by great composers in chronological order, and must explain to him how they contributed to the advance of music." Secondly, it highlights that Mendelssohn was more concerned to reinvigorate the musical legacy which he inherited, rather than to replace it with new forms and styles, or with the use of more exotic orchestration . In these ways he differed significantly from many of his contemporaries in

1410-411: A while with her grandmother at Offenbach am Main and from 1803 to 1806 with her brother-in-law, Friedrich von Savigny , the famous jurist, at Marburg . She formed a friendship with Karoline von Günderrode . The two friends acknowledged only natural impulses, laws, and methods of life, and brooded over the "tyranny" of conventionalities. In 1806, Günderrode committed suicide on account of a passion for

1504-584: A year later, the dedicatee and first performer of his Violin Concerto, Ferdinand David , would be born. Mendelssohn's father, the banker Abraham Mendelssohn , was the son of the German Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn , whose family was prominent in the German Jewish community. Until his baptism at age seven, Mendelssohn was brought up largely without religion. His mother, Lea Salomon ,

1598-544: A year. No trace of the Bettina community survives, though two of its three founders subsequently became prominent: Gustav Schleicher , later a U.S. congressman and namesake of Schleicher County , and Dr. Ferdinand Ludwig Herff , who in 1854 became the first surgeon to use anesthesia in Texas. The community's third founder was Hermann Spiess . Part of von Arnim's design for a colossal statue of Goethe, executed in marble by

1692-523: Is conveyed in his comments to a correspondent who suggested converting some of the Songs Without Words into lieder by adding texts: "What [the] music I love expresses to me, are not thoughts that are too indefinite for me to put into words, but on the contrary, too definite ." Schumann wrote of Mendelssohn that he was "the Mozart of the nineteenth century, the most brilliant musician,

1786-513: Is from 779 in the Codex Aureus of Lorsch . The economic power of the Wetterau has increased continuously through specific promotion of its urban centres Frankfurt am Main , Wetzlar , Gelnhausen and Friedberg since Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor . The cities with their magnificent buildings were important bases for the royal travels and central places for exercising royal rights in the areas of economy and jurisdiction. The economic power

1880-665: Is in the Wiepersdorf churchyard. During the years of 1806 to 1808, von Arnim helped gather the folk songs that made up Des Knaben Wunderhorn , the collaborative work of her brother and her future husband, Achim von Arnim . Some of the songs were later put to music by a number of composers, among them Gustav Mahler . The collection became a touchstone of the Romantic musical and poetic style. From 1808 to 1809 she studied voice, composition, and piano in Munich under Peter von Winter and Sebastian Bopp. She published her first song under

1974-510: Is such a frightful muddle [...] that one ought to wash one's hands after handling one of his scores"; and of Meyerbeer's opera Robert le diable "I consider it ignoble", calling its villain Bertram "a poor devil". When his friend the composer Ferdinand Hiller suggested in conversation to Mendelssohn that he looked rather like Meyerbeer – they were actually distant cousins, both descendants of Rabbi Moses Isserles  – Mendelssohn

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2068-727: The Journal of the Royal Musical Association that "The Committee of the Mendelssohn Scholarship Foundation possesses material indicating that Mendelssohn wrote passionate love letters to Jenny Lind entreating her to join him in an adulterous relationship and threatening suicide as a means of exerting pressure upon her, and that these letters were destroyed on being discovered after her death." Mendelssohn met and worked with Lind many times, and started an opera, Lorelei , for her, based on

2162-637: The Jerusalem Church , at which time Felix was given the additional names Jakob Ludwig. Abraham and his wife Lea were baptised in 1822, and formally adopted the surname Mendelssohn Bartholdy (which they had used since 1812) for themselves and for their children. The name Bartholdy was added at the suggestion of Lea's brother, Jakob Salomon Bartholdy, who had inherited a property of this name in Luisenstadt and adopted it as his own surname. In an 1829 letter to Felix, Abraham explained that adopting

2256-725: The Nidda , Nidder, Horloff and Usa . The Wetterau has a long history and is one of the oldest cultural landscapes in Germany . It was always a very fertile region and was populous from as early as the Neolithic Age. Artifacts from successive civilizations that populated the area also exist. Prominent discoveries are tombs from the Bronze Age , Stufe Wölfersheim or from the Celts , Glauberg . Many historical findings are exhibited in

2350-602: The St. Matthew Passion . Mendelssohn worked with the dramatist Karl Immermann to improve local theatre standards, and made his first appearance as an opera conductor in Immermann's production of Mozart's Don Giovanni at the end of 1833, where he took umbrage at the audience's protests about the cost of tickets. His frustration at his everyday duties in Düsseldorf, and the city's provincialism, led him to resign his position at

2444-485: The 13 early string symphonies . These were written from 1821 to 1823, when he was between the ages of 12 and 14, principally for performance in the Mendelssohn household, and not published or publicly performed until long after his death. His first published works were his three piano quartets (1822–1825; Op. 1 in C minor, Op. 2 in F minor and Op. 3 in B minor); but his capacities are especially revealed in

2538-482: The Bartholdy name was meant to demonstrate a decisive break with the traditions of his father Moses: "There can no more be a Christian Mendelssohn than there can be a Jewish Confucius ". (Letter to Felix of 8 July 1829). On embarking on his musical career, Felix did not entirely drop the name Mendelssohn as Abraham had requested, but in deference to his father signed his letters and had his visiting cards printed using

2632-776: The German 5- Deutsche Mark bill. Her friendship with Robert Schumann featured in Andrew Crumey's 2004 novel Mobius Dick . She is also mentioned in Crumey's 2023 novel Beethoven's Assassins . In 2006, the German government turned Künstlerhaus Schloss Wiepersdorf , the estate of the von Arnims, into a literary institute. The institute contains a museum devoted to the von Arnims' literary legacy. [REDACTED] Category Felix Mendelssohn Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 1809 – 4 November 1847), widely known as Felix Mendelssohn ,

2726-467: The King's request, music for productions of Sophocles 's Antigone (1841 – an overture and seven pieces ) and Oedipus at Colonus (1845), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1843) and Racine 's Athalie (1845). But the funds for the school never materialised, and many of the court's promises to Mendelssohn regarding finances, title, and concert programming were broken. He was therefore not displeased to have

2820-564: The Prussian throne in 1840 with ambitions to develop Berlin as a cultural centre (including the establishment of a music school, and reform of music for the church), the obvious choice to head these reforms was Mendelssohn. He was reluctant to undertake the task, especially in the light of his existing strong position in Leipzig. Mendelssohn nonetheless spent some time in Berlin, writing some church music such as Die Deutsche Liturgie , and, at

2914-614: The Singakademie; Zelter, whose tastes in music were conservative, was also an admirer of the Bach tradition. This undoubtedly played a significant part in forming Felix Mendelssohn's musical tastes, as his works reflect this study of Baroque and early classical music. His fugues and chorales especially reflect a tonal clarity and use of counterpoint reminiscent of Johann Sebastian Bach , whose music influenced him deeply. Mendelssohn probably made his first public concert appearance at

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3008-463: The Singakademie; but at a vote in January 1833 he was defeated for the post by Carl Friedrich Rungenhagen . This may have been because of Mendelssohn's youth, and fear of possible innovations; it was also suspected by some to be attributable to his Jewish ancestry. Following this rebuff, Mendelssohn divided most of his professional time over the next few years between Britain and Düsseldorf , where he

3102-461: The Wetterau became more obvious, in particular the powerful families in Hanau , Eppstein and Isenburg-Büdingen . The regional unity of the Wetterau was not primarily a political concept, but rather its result. Since 1422 the late medieval policy initially led to establishment of the estates of the realm, the alliance of knights, and lords and counts of the Wetterau. These supported the development of

3196-666: The Wetterau-Museum in Friedberg . The Wetterau was of high strategic relevance for the Roman Empire during its advance into the free Germania . After the end of the Germanic and Gallic wars (58 to 51 BC) a number of Roman forts and roads were built in the Wetterau. A series of fortifications, part of the limes , surrounded the fertile Wetterau region. The region was part of Germania . The first documented reference

3290-585: The age of 37. Her grandmother, Sophie von La Roche , was a novelist, and her brother was Clemens Brentano, the great poet known for his lyric poems, libretti, and Singspiele . He was a mentor and protector to her and inspired her to read the poetry of the time, especially Goethe. From an early age Bettina was called 'the kobold ' by her brothers and sisters, a nickname that she maintained later on in Berlin society. After being educated at an Ursulines convent school in Fritzlar from 1794 to 1797, Bettina lived for

3384-402: The age of nine, when he participated in a chamber music concert accompanying a horn duo. He was a prolific composer from an early age. As an adolescent, his works were often performed at home with a private orchestra for the associates of his wealthy parents amongst the intellectual elite of Berlin. Between the ages of 12 and 14, Mendelssohn wrote 13 string symphonies for such concerts, and

3478-566: The age of seven years, Mendelssohn was baptised with his brother and sisters in a private domestic ceremony by Johann Jakob Stegemann, Minister of the Evangelical congregation of Berlin's Jerusalem Church and New Church . Although Mendelssohn was a conforming Christian as a member of the Reformed Church, he was both conscious and proud of his Jewish ancestry and notably of his connection with his grandfather, Moses Mendelssohn. He

3572-507: The backing of Zelter and the assistance of the actor Eduard Devrient , Mendelssohn arranged and conducted a performance in Berlin of Bach's St Matthew Passion . Four years previously his grandmother, Bella Salomon , had given him a copy of the manuscript of this (by then all-but-forgotten) masterpiece. The orchestra and choir for the performance were provided by the Berlin Singakademie. The success of this performance, one of

3666-650: The basis of the extensive collection of Mendelssohn manuscripts, including the so-called "Green Books" of his correspondence, now in the Bodleian Library at Oxford University. Cécile Mendelssohn Bartholdy died less than six years after her husband, on 25 September 1853. Mendelssohn became close to the Swedish soprano Jenny Lind , whom he met in October 1844. Papers confirming their relationship had not been made public. In 2013, George Biddlecombe confirmed in

3760-438: The beginning of his maturity as a composer." This Octet and his Overture to Shakespeare 's A Midsummer Night's Dream , which he wrote a year later in 1826, are the best-known of his early works. (Later, in 1843, he also wrote incidental music for the play, including the famous " Wedding March ".) The Overture is perhaps the earliest example of a concert overture  – that is, a piece not written deliberately to accompany

3854-410: The best education possible. Fanny became a pianist well known in Berlin musical circles as a composer; originally Abraham had thought that she, rather than Felix, would be the more musical. But it was not considered proper, by either Abraham or Felix, for a woman to pursue a career in music, so she remained an active but non-professional musician. Abraham was initially disinclined to allow Felix to follow

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3948-420: The classical tradition had tended to be at the transition from the development section of the movement to the recapitulation; whereas Berlioz and other "modernists" sought to have the emotional climax at the end of a movement, if necessary by adding an extended coda to follow the recapitulation proper. Mendelssohn's solution to this problem was less sensational than Berlioz's approach, but was rooted in changing

4042-414: The contradictions between classical forms and the sentiments of Romanticism. The expressiveness of Romantic music presented a problem in adherence to sonata form ; the final ( recapitulation ) section of a movement could seem, in the context of Romantic style, a bland element without passion or soul. Furthermore, it could be seen as a pedantic delay before reaching the emotional climax of a movement, which in

4136-459: The creative community. She published a collection of seven songs in public support of Prussian music director Gaspare Spontini , under duress at the time. The German-American settlement of Bettina in the state of Texas was founded in 1847, and named by its progressive, idealistic founders after Bettina von Arnim. Located near the juncture of Elm Creek and the Llano River , it lasted only

4230-435: The early Romantic period, such as Wagner, Berlioz and Franz Liszt . Whilst Mendelssohn admired Liszt's virtuosity at the keyboard, he found his music jejune. Berlioz said of Mendelssohn that he had "perhaps studied the music of the dead too closely." The musicologist Greg Vitercik considers that, while "Mendelssohn's music only rarely aspires to provoke", the stylistic innovations evident from his earliest works solve some of

4324-496: The effect as "to assimilate the dynamic trajectory of 'external form' to the 'logical' unfolding of the story of the theme". Richard Taruskin wrote that, although Mendelssohn produced works of extraordinary mastery at a very early age, he never outgrew his precocious youthful style. [...] He remained stylistically conservative [...] feeling no need to attract attention with a display of "revolutionary" novelty. Throughout his short career he remained comfortably faithful to

4418-605: The end of 1834. He had offers from both Munich and Leipzig for important musical posts, namely, direction of the Munich Opera , the editorship of the prestigious Leipzig music journal the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung , and direction of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra ; he accepted the latter in 1835. In Leipzig, Mendelssohn concentrated on developing the town's musical life by working with

4512-554: The excuse to return to Leipzig. In 1843 Mendelssohn founded a major music school – the Leipzig Conservatory, now the Hochschule für Musik und Theater "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" . where he persuaded Ignaz Moscheles and Robert Schumann to join him. Other prominent musicians, including the string players Ferdinand David and Joseph Joachim and the music theorist Moritz Hauptmann , also became staff members. After Mendelssohn's death in 1847, his musically conservative tradition

4606-678: The family was assembled ... he began to talk incoherently in English. The stern voice of his father at last checked the wild torrent of words; they took him to bed, and a profound sleep of twelve hours restored him to his normal state". Such fits may be related to his early death. Mendelssohn was an enthusiastic visual artist who worked in pencil and watercolour , a skill which he enjoyed throughout his life. His correspondence indicates that he could write with considerable wit in German and English – his letters were sometimes accompanied by humorous sketches and cartoons. On 21 March 1816, at

4700-455: The first composer to set the poet Hölderlin's work to music. She was a muse to the progressives of Prussia , linked to the socialist movement and an advocate for the oppressed Jewish community. She published two politically dissident works but evaded chastisement because of her friendship with the King of Prussia . After the 1831 death of her husband, Bettina continued her dedication to

4794-602: The form 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. In 1829, his sister Fanny wrote to him of "Bartholdy [...] this name that we all dislike". Mendelssohn began taking piano lessons from his mother when he was six, and at seven was tutored by Marie Bigot in Paris. Later in Berlin, all four Mendelssohn children studied piano with Ludwig Berger , who was himself a former student of Muzio Clementi . From at least May 1819 Mendelssohn (initially with his sister Fanny) studied counterpoint and composition with Carl Friedrich Zelter in Berlin. This

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4888-527: The household that "Europe came to their living room". Abraham Mendelssohn renounced the Jewish religion prior to Felix's birth and he and his wife decided against having Felix circumcised . Felix and his siblings were at first brought up without religious education; on 21 March 1816, they were baptized in a private ceremony in the family's Berlin apartment by the Reformed Protestant minister of

4982-566: The legend of the Lorelei Rhine maidens; the opera was unfinished at his death. He is said to have tailored the aria "Hear Ye Israel", in his oratorio Elijah , to Lind's voice, although she did not sing the part until after his death, at a concert in December 1848. In 1847, Mendelssohn attended a London performance of Meyerbeer's Robert le diable  – an opera that musically he despised – in order to hear Lind's British debut, in

5076-429: The memoirs of the composer's circle", including Hensel's. The nickname "discontented Polish count" was given to Mendelssohn on account of his aloofness, and he referred to the epithet in his letters. He was frequently given to fits of temper which occasionally led to collapse. Devrient mentions that on one occasion in the 1830s, when his wishes had been crossed, "his excitement was increased so fearfully ... that when

5170-485: The musical status quo – that is, the "classical" forms, as they were already thought of by his time. His version of romanticism, already evident in his earliest works, consisted in musical "pictorialism" of a fairly conventional, objective nature (though exquisitely wrought). The young Mendelssohn was greatly influenced in his childhood by the music of both J. S. Bach and C. P. E. Bach , and of Beethoven, Joseph Haydn and Mozart; traces of these composers can be seen in

5264-423: The one who most clearly sees through the contradictions of the age and for the first time reconciles them." This appreciation brings to the fore two features that characterized Mendelssohn's compositions and his compositional process. First, that his inspiration for musical style was rooted in his technical mastery and his interpretation of the style of previous masters, although he certainly recognized and developed

5358-578: The only person who brought fulfillment to my spirit, and almost as soon as I found him I lost him again." In 1849, she established the Mendelssohn Scholarship Foundation, which makes an award to a young resident British composer every two years in Mendelssohn's memory. The first winner of the scholarship, in 1856, was Arthur Sullivan , then aged 14. In 1869, Lind erected a plaque in Mendelssohn's memory at his birthplace in Hamburg. Something of Mendelssohn's intense attachment to his personal vision of music

5452-465: The oratorio Elijah , the overture The Hebrides , the mature Violin Concerto , the String Octet , and the melody used in the Christmas carol " Hark! The Herald Angels Sing ". Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words are his most famous solo piano compositions. Mendelssohn's grandfather was the renowned Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn , but Felix was initially raised without religion until he

5546-481: The orchestra, the opera house, the Thomanerchor (of which Bach had been a director), and the city's other choral and musical institutions. Mendelssohn's concerts included, in addition to many of his own works, three series of "historical concerts" featuring music of the eighteenth century, and a number of works by his contemporaries. He was deluged by offers of music from rising and would-be composers; among these

5640-447: The philologist Georg Friedrich Creuzer . In 1807 at Weimar Bettina made the acquaintance of Goethe, for whom she entertained a significant passion, which the poet did not requite, though he entered into correspondence with her. Their friendship came to an abrupt end in 1811, owing to Bettina's behaviour with Goethe's wife. In 1810, Bettina visited Vienna, staying at the home of her half-brother Franz Brentano and his wife Antonie . It

5734-425: The premiere – and sole performance in his lifetime – of Mendelssohn's opera Die Hochzeit des Camacho . The failure of this production left him disinclined to venture into the genre again. Besides music, Mendelssohn's education included art, literature, languages, and philosophy. He had a particular interest in classical literature and translated Terence 's Andria for his tutor Heyse in 1825; Heyse

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5828-525: The pseudonym Beans Beor , which she occasionally used later as well. Bettina sang briefly in the Berliner Singakademie and composed settings of Hellenistic poems by Amalie von Helvig. Though domestic duties connected to her 1811 marriage to von Arnim diminished her productivity, several art songs from the period have been recovered and have been published in Werke und Briefe . Von Arnim was

5922-492: The renowned Romantic poet and member of the notable Arnim family . The couple settled first at the Wiepersdorf castle , and then in Berlin . They had seven children. Achim died in 1831, but Bettina maintained an active public life. Her passion for Goethe revived, and in 1835, after lengthy discussions with the writer and landscape gardener Hermann von Pückler-Muskau , she published her book Goethe's Correspondence with

6016-421: The role of Alice. The music critic Henry Chorley , who was with him, wrote: "I see as I write the smile with which Mendelssohn, whose enjoyment of Mdlle. Lind's talent was unlimited, turned round and looked at me, as if a load of anxiety had been taken off his mind. His attachment to Mdlle. Lind's genius as a singer was unbounded, as was his desire for her success." Upon Mendelssohn's death, Lind wrote: "[He was]

6110-460: The same relation to the Mozart of that time that the cultivated talk of a grown-up person bears to the prattle of a child." Mendelssohn was invited to meet Goethe on several later occasions, and set a number of Goethe's poems to music. His other compositions inspired by Goethe include the overture Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage (Op. 27, 1828), and the cantata Die erste Walpurgisnacht ( The First Walpurgis Night , Op. 60, 1832). In 1829, with

6204-461: The sculptor Carl Johann Steinhäuser (1813–1878), was displayed in the museum at Weimar in 1911. The chamber opera Bettina by Friedrich Schenker , which was premiered in Berlin in 1987, deals with her friendship to Karoline von Günderrode . Her relationship with Goethe featured in Milan Kundera's 1990 novel Immortality . From 1991 until 31 December 2001, her portrait was on

6298-419: The slightest and most humorous allusions". Thus for example in a letter to his sister Rebecka, Mendelssohn rebukes her complaint about an unpleasant relative: "What do you mean by saying you are not hostile to Jews? I hope this was a joke [...] It is really sweet of you that you do not despise your family, isn't it?" Some modern scholars have devoted considerable energy to demonstrate either that Mendelssohn

6392-450: The strains of early Romanticism in the music of Beethoven and Weber. The historian James Garratt writes that from his early career, "the view emerged that Mendelssohn's engagement with early music was a defining aspect of his creativity." This approach was recognized by Mendelssohn himself, who wrote that, in his meetings with Goethe, he gave the poet "historical exhibitions" at the keyboard; "every morning, for about an hour, I have to play

6486-401: The structural balance of the formal components of the movement. Thus typically in a Mendelssohnian movement, the development-recapitulation transition might not be strongly marked, and the recapitulation section would be harmonically or melodically varied so as not to be a direct copy of the opening, exposition , section; this allowed a logical movement towards a final climax. Vitercik summarizes

6580-559: The summer of 1844, he conducted five of the Philharmonic concerts in London, and wrote: "[N]ever before was anything like this season – we never went to bed before half-past one, every hour of every day was filled with engagements three weeks beforehand, and I got through more music in two months than in all the rest of the year." (Letter to Rebecka Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Soden, 22 July 1844). On subsequent visits Mendelssohn met Queen Victoria and her husband Prince Albert , himself

6674-402: The time, including Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn , Robert and Clara Schumann , Franz Liszt , Johanna Kinkel , and Johannes Brahms , admired her spirit and talents. As a composer, von Arnim's style was unconventional, molding and melding favorite folk melodies and historical themes with innovative harmonies, phrase lengths, and improvisations that became synonymous with the music of the era. She

6768-468: The very few since Bach's death and the first ever outside of Leipzig , was the central event in the revival of Bach's music in Germany and, eventually, throughout Europe. It earned Mendelssohn widespread acclaim at the age of 20. It also led to one of the few explicit references which Mendelssohn made to his origins: "To think that it took an actor and a Jew's son to revive the greatest Christian music for

6862-635: The world!" Over the next few years Mendelssohn travelled widely. His first visit to England was in 1829; other places visited during the 1830s included Vienna, Florence, Milan, Rome and Naples, in all of which he met with local and visiting musicians and artists. These years proved to be the germination for some of his most famous works, including the Hebrides Overture and the Scottish and Italian symphonies. On Zelter's death in 1832, Mendelssohn had hopes of succeeding him as conductor of

6956-603: The writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (then in his seventies), who was greatly impressed by the child, leading to perhaps the earliest confirmed comparison with Mozart in the following conversation between Goethe and Zelter: "Musical prodigies ... are probably no longer so rare; but what this little man can do in extemporizing and playing at sight borders the miraculous, and I could not have believed it possible at so early an age." "And yet you heard Mozart in his seventh year at Frankfurt?" said Zelter. "Yes", answered Goethe, "... but what your pupil already accomplishes, bears

7050-452: Was Richard Wagner , who submitted his early Symphony , the score of which, to Wagner's disgust, Mendelssohn lost or mislaid. Mendelssohn also revived interest in the music of Franz Schubert . Robert Schumann discovered the manuscript of Schubert's Ninth Symphony and sent it to Mendelssohn, who promptly premiered it in Leipzig on 21 March 1839, more than a decade after Schubert's death. A landmark event during Mendelssohn's Leipzig years

7144-480: Was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositions include symphonies , concertos, piano music, organ music and chamber music . His best-known works include the overture and incidental music for A Midsummer Night's Dream (which includes his " Wedding March "), the Italian Symphony , the Scottish Symphony , the oratorio St. Paul ,

7238-527: Was a German writer and novelist. Bettina (or Bettine ) Brentano was a writer, publisher, composer, singer, visual artist, an illustrator, patron of young talent, and a social activist. She was the archetype of the Romantic era's zeitgeist and the crux of many creative relationships of canonical artistic figures. Best known for the company she kept, she numbered among her closest friends Goethe , Beethoven , Schleiermacher , and Pückler and tried to foster artistic agreement among them. Many leading composers of

7332-608: Was a member of the Itzig family and a sister of Jakob Salomon Bartholdy . Mendelssohn was the second of four children; his older sister Fanny also displayed exceptional and precocious musical talent. The family moved to Berlin in 1811, leaving Hamburg in disguise in fear of French reprisal for the Mendelssohn bank 's role in breaking Napoleon 's Continental System blockade. Abraham and Lea Mendelssohn sought to give their children – Fanny, Felix, Paul and Rebecka  –

7426-558: Was an important influence on his future career. Zelter had almost certainly been recommended as a teacher by his aunt Sarah Levy , who had been a pupil of W. F. Bach and a patron of C. P. E. Bach . Sarah Levy displayed some talent as a keyboard player, and often played with Zelter's orchestra at the Berliner Singakademie ; she and the Mendelssohn family were among its leading patrons. Sarah had formed an important collection of Bach family manuscripts, which she bequeathed to

7520-587: Was appointed musical director (his first paid post as a musician) in 1833. In the spring of that year Mendelssohn directed the Lower Rhenish Music Festival in Düsseldorf, beginning with a performance of George Frideric Handel 's oratorio Israel in Egypt prepared from the original score, which he had found in London. This precipitated a Handel revival in Germany, similar to the reawakened interest in J. S. Bach following his performance of

7614-471: Was at this time she met Beethoven . She later claimed to have been instrumental in arranging the first meeting of Beethoven and Goethe at Teplitz in 1812, and published a letter supposedly written by Beethoven describing how while walking with Goethe, he had refused to step aside for visiting dignitaries while Goethe bowed - an incident that became famous, though the "greatest likelihood is that Bettina made it up". In 1811, Bettina married Achim von Arnim ,

7708-467: Was baptised aged seven into the Reformed Christian church. He was recognised early as a musical prodigy , but his parents were cautious and did not seek to capitalise on his talent. His sister Fanny Mendelssohn received a similar musical education and was a talented composer and pianist in her own right; some of her early songs were published under her brother's name and her Easter Sonata

7802-534: Was carried on when Moscheles succeeded him as head of the Conservatory. Mendelssohn first visited Britain in 1829, where Moscheles, who had already settled in London, introduced him to influential musical circles. In the summer he visited Edinburgh , where he met among others the composer John Thomson , whom he later recommended for the post of professor of music at Edinburgh University . He made ten visits to Britain, lasting altogether about 20 months; he won

7896-435: Was closely related to the German writers Clemens Brentano and Achim von Arnim : the first was her brother, the second her husband. Her daughter Gisela von Arnim became a prominent writer as well. Her nephews, via her brother Christian , were Franz and Lujo Brentano . Bettina von Arnim was born at Frankfurt am Main , into the large Brentano family of Italian merchants. Her mother Maximiliane Brentano died in 1793 at

7990-634: Was deeply sympathetic to his ancestors' Jewish beliefs, or that he was hostile to this and sincere in his Christian beliefs. Throughout his life Mendelssohn was wary of the more radical musical developments undertaken by some of his contemporaries. He was generally on friendly, if sometimes somewhat cool, terms with Hector Berlioz , Franz Liszt , and Giacomo Meyerbeer , but in his letters expresses his frank disapproval of their works, for example writing of Liszt that his compositions were "inferior to his playing, and […] only calculated for virtuosos"; of Berlioz's overture Les francs-juges "[T]he orchestration

8084-865: Was for a time mistakenly attributed to him after being lost and rediscovered in the 1970s. Mendelssohn enjoyed early success in Germany, and revived interest in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach , notably with his performance of the St Matthew Passion in 1829. He became well received in his travels throughout Europe as a composer, conductor and soloist; his ten visits to Britain – during which many of his major works were premiered – form an important part of his adult career. His essentially conservative musical tastes set him apart from more adventurous musical contemporaries, such as Franz Liszt , Richard Wagner , Charles-Valentin Alkan and Hector Berlioz . The Leipzig Conservatory , which he founded, became

8178-508: Was impressed and had it published in 1826 as a work of "his pupil, F****" [i.e. "Felix" (asterisks as provided in original text)]. This translation also qualified Mendelssohn to study at the University of Berlin , where from 1826 to 1829 he attended lectures on aesthetics by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel , on history by Eduard Gans , and on geography by Carl Ritter . In 1821 Zelter introduced Mendelssohn to his friend and correspondent,

8272-636: Was left with impaired health; he died in 1851. The eldest, Carl Mendelssohn Bartholdy (7 February 1838 – 23 February 1897), became a historian, and professor of history at Heidelberg and Freiburg universities; he died in a psychiatric institution in Freiburg aged 59. Paul Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1841–1880) was a noted chemist and pioneered the manufacture of aniline dye. Marie married Victor Benecke and lived in London. Lili married Adolf Wach , later professor of law at Leipzig University . The family papers inherited by Marie's and Lili's children form

8366-524: Was placed at 4 Hobart Place in Belgravia , London, in 2013. His protégé, the British composer and pianist William Sterndale Bennett , worked closely with Mendelssohn during this period, both in London and Leipzig. He first heard Bennett perform in London in 1833 aged 17. Bennett appeared with Mendelssohn in concerts in Leipzig throughout the 1836/1837 season. On Mendelssohn's eighth British visit in

8460-630: Was reflected in the right for coinage of the Lords of Hagen-Münzenberg and the urban right to hold markets. Since the 13th century the latter developed into a regular series of fairs in Frankfurt and Friedberg. The Frankfurt Trade Fair still continues this tradition nowadays. At the end of the Staufer period and with the extinction of the Münzenberg family in 1255 the different political powers of

8554-466: Was so upset that he immediately went to get a haircut to differentiate himself. In particular, Mendelssohn seems to have regarded Paris and its music with the greatest of suspicion and an almost puritanical distaste. Attempts made during his visit there to interest him in Saint-Simonianism ended in embarrassing scenes. It is significant that the only musician with whom Mendelssohn remained

8648-586: Was the premiere of his oratorio Paulus , (the English version of this is known as St. Paul ), given at the Lower Rhenish Festival in Düsseldorf in 1836, shortly after the death of the composer's father, which affected him greatly; Felix wrote that he would "never cease to endeavour to gain his approval ... although I can no longer enjoy it". St. Paul seemed to many of Mendelssohn's contemporaries to be his finest work, and sealed his European reputation. When Friedrich Wilhelm IV came to

8742-457: Was the prime mover in proposing to the publisher Heinrich Brockhaus a complete edition of Moses' works, which continued with the support of his uncle, Joseph Mendelssohn . Felix was notably reluctant, either in his letters or conversation, to comment on his innermost beliefs; his friend Devrient wrote that "[his] deep convictions were never uttered in intercourse with the world; only in rare and intimate moments did they ever appear, and then only in

8836-694: Was the soloist in Beethoven 's Piano Concerto No. 4 and conducted his own Scottish Symphony with the Philharmonic Orchestra before the Queen and Prince Albert. Mendelssohn suffered from poor health in the final years of his life, probably aggravated by nervous problems and overwork. A final tour of England left him exhausted and ill, and the death of his sister, Fanny, on 14 May 1847, caused him further distress. Less than six months later, on 4 November, aged 38, Mendelssohn died in Leipzig after

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