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Felix Mendelssohn: Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel
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Mendelssohn continued to conduct at the Gewandhaus and to direct and teach at the Conservatoire. He put heart and soul into his great oratorio Eloah, which he conducted at its premiere in Birmingham in 1846, when it showed Mendelssohn at his most dramatic and romantic. He was already exhausted by travel and overwork when the shattering news of his sister Fanny's death brought on a severe depression. Fits of shivering and head pains followed, leading to a fatal stroke. When he died at just 38, he was mourned especially by Schumann, who felt that Europe had lost a potential successor to Beethoven.
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Mendelssohn was born into a prosperous middle-class family that played host to many distinguished guests, including the poet Goethe with whom the young boy became great friends. Beethoven heard him play in 1821 and made a prophetic entry in one of his conversation books: "Mendelssohn- 12 years old- promises much." By this time Felix had already produced four operas, 12 string symphonies and a large quantity of chamber and piano music. Yet despite his prodigious gifts and all the attention lavished upon them, he remained unusually level-headed and close to his friends and family, in particular his talented sister, Fanny.
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Felix and his sister Fanny were inordinately gifted musicians, and their sister Rebecca was an adept linguist who could read Homer in the original Greek. The children were tutored in English, French, and German, and when they weren't playing or making music, they read voraciously. Shakespeare was a favorite, and Felix and his sisters would read the plays aloud, acting out the different parts.
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Mendelssohn never showed any of the stereotypical eccentricities associated with artists. He was always charming and gracious. He was a good son, a devoted brother, a loving husband, and an affectionate father. Unfortunately, he did not live long enough to accomplish all he could have. One hundred and fifty years ago, Felix Mendelssohn died at the age of thirty-nine, after suffering two strokes. Some say that the death of his beloved sister, Fanny, who was ... a musical giant, a few months before, had demoralized him and robbed him of his incentive to live.
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This was only the beginning of a series of weekly musical evenings at the Mendelssohn home. Felix, with his dark curls, his shining eyes, and charming manners, was the life of anything he undertook. He often conducted his little pieces, but did not monopolize the time. Sometimes all four children took part, Fanny at the piano, Rebekka singing, Paul playing the 'cello and Felix at the desk. Old Zelter was generally present, and though averse to praising pupils, would often say a few words of encouragement at the close.
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In 1847, Felix was devastated by the death of his sister, Fanny, with whom he had an especially close relationship, personally and artistically. His health declined, and after a series of strokes, he died in the same year.
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Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel