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Felix Mendelssohn
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Far from the troubled, coarse libertine that has become an archetype of the Romantic composer, Felix Mendelssohn was something of an anomaly among his contemporaries. His own situation -- one largely of domestic tranquility and unhindered career fulfillment -- stands in stark contrast to the personal Sturm und Drang familiar to his peers. Mendelssohn was the only musical prodigy of the nineteenth century whose stature could rival that of Mozart. Still, his parents resisted any entrepreneurial impulses and spared young Felix the strange, grueling lifestyle that was the lot of many child prodigies. He and his sister Fanny were given piano lessons, and he ... studied violin, and both joined the Berlin Singakademie. Carl Friedrich Zelter, director of the Singakademie, became Mendelssohn's first composition instructor.
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Felix Mendelssohn was a German man who composed (created and wrote) music. He was born in 1809 in the city Hamburg and died in 1847. His music is emotional and charming but is sometimes accused of sentimentality. He often visited and worked in Britain. His works include Camacho's Wedding, Midsummer Night's Dream, Symphony in C Minor, Scotch Symphony, Elija, and the Hebrides overture. He ... played the piano and the organ very well.
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Although Felix Mendelssohn had an extremely busy schedule with pianist, conductor and teacher duties, he was able to compose five symphonies in his short life. Mendelssohn took on added responsibilities to his already extremely busy life by marrying on the twenty-eighth of March in 1837. He married Cecile Jeanrenaud, the daughter of a French Protestant clergyman. She was 10 years younger than Felix was.
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Shortly after his twentieth birthday, Felix Mendelssohn accepted an invitation from diplomat Klingemann to travel to London. Introduction into the salons and social life there paved the way for Mendelssohn to appear in four large scale concerts, including his first Symphony, Op. 11. After the concert season, he traveled to Edinburgh where his impressions formed the basis of the Scottish Symphony. On the way to the Scottish highlands, Mendelssohn visited Sir Walter Scott in Abbottsford and made a stormy crossing to the island of Staffa. There, 'Fingal's Cave' was the inspiration for his overture Die Hebriden (originally called Die einsame Insel, The Lonely Island). In 1830, Mendelssohn, then just 21, was offered the chair of music at the University of Berlin, but declined, recommending a friend instead.
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Born February 3, 1809 in Hamburg, Germany, Felix Mendelssohn began, like Mozart, as a child prodigy. His father, Abraham, was a successful banker; his influential mother, Leah Solomon, was an amateur musician. Young Felix studied both the violin and piano and gave his first public recital at age nine. Encouraged by his family and teachers, the precocious Felix began writing music when he was 10 years old. At the age of 17, he astonished the world with a true masterpiece, his Overture to William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. By this time he had already written his twelve symphonies for string orchestra.
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Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn was born in Hamburg, Germany, on February 3, 1809, and died in Leipzig on November 4, 1847. The G-minor piano concerto was completed in 1831 and received its first performance in the Odeonsaal in Munich on October 17 of that year, with the composer as soloist. In addition to the solo piano, the score calls for two each of flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns, and trumpets, timpani, and strings.
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Felix Mendelssohn