LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Felix Mendelssohn: Hebrides Overture
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In 1829, Mendelssohn conducted Berlin’s Singakademie in a revival of J.S. Bach’s St. Matthew’s Passion, its first performance since Bach’s death. Shortly after this performance, Mendelssohn composed his Reformation Symphony while touring his grandfather’s birthplace, Dessault. On this same tour, he visited Rome and finished his first draft of the Hebrides Overture, and in December announced it as a birthday present to his father.
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During the years 1829 to 1835 Mendelssohn travelled all over Europe. He visited London several times and he ... performed Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto there. He travelled to Scotland where he sailed to Fingal’s Cave in the Hebrides. This inspired him to write the overture called The Hebrides. When he was returning the coach had an accident and he hurt his knee. He stayed with the composer Thomas Attwood for some time before he could return to Berlin.
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At about the same time, Felix began to travel widely; the next few years took him to England, Scotland, and Italy. Besides spreading his reputation, these journeys were important for the pieces that they yielded. Some, such as his "Italian" symphony and the Hebrides overture, documented his musical impressions of these voyages.
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Mendelssohn was very close to his sister Fanny... prodigiously talented but lacking the support her brother received. In 1826 they read Shakespeare together, resulting in Mendelssohn's overture A Midsummer Night's Dream. The assured mastery of this work and the radiant Octet of the previous year were astonishing achievements for a boy in his late teens and it is no surprise that he was compared with Mozart. A Midsummer Night's Dream bears the Mendelssohn hallmark of elegant melodic invention, effortlessly interweav
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From England, Felix ventured to Scotland where he became acquainted with Sir Walter Scott. Felix stayed, drawn by the scenery of the Hebridean Island of Staffa and entranced by the imagery of the waves breaking along the Scottish seashore. These imaginations inspired the composition "Hebrides Overture," later to be performed in London.
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In 1824 the famous pianist Ignaz Moscheles arrived in Berlin from London, and for a time Mendelssohn studied piano with him. The following year Mendelssohn visited Paris, where he met many eminent composers and performed his Piano Quartet in B Minor, dedicated to Goethe. Luigi Cherubini, who was present at the performance, offered to take Mendelssohn as a pupil, but he decided to return to Berlin, greatly elated with his French successes. There he wrote with mature craftsmanship the celebrated Midsummer Night's Dream Overture. The remainder of the incidental music to Shakespeare's play did not appear until 1842.
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Hebrides Overture