Felix Mendelssohn Free Sheet Music, Program Notes, Recordings and Biography

The Conductor's Baton: A Voice for the Past

In 1829, a 20-year-old Felix Mendelssohn stood before the Berlin Sing-Akademie orchestra and choir to conduct a monumental, almost forgotten work: the St Matthew Passion by Johann Sebastian Bach. At the time, Bach was seen as a dusty, academic figure, and his major choral works had not been performed in nearly a century. The young Mendelssohn, using his own funds, had arranged this performance out of a deep and passionate conviction for the music's greatness. The event was a spectacular success, playing to a sold-out house and stunning the audience with its power and beauty. This single concert is considered one of the most important events in music history; it sparked the international revival of Bach's music and established Mendelssohn not just as a brilliant composer in his own right, but as a profound and historically conscious musician who built a bridge to the past.

A Prodigy in a Golden Age

Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn was born in Hamburg in 1809 into one of Europe's most prominent families. His grandfather was the celebrated Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, and his father was a wealthy and successful banker. The family converted to Protestantism, adding the name "Bartholdy." Felix and his older sister Fanny Mendelssohn grew up in a home that was a vibrant center of intellectual and artistic life in Berlin. Felix was an astonishing child prodigy, often compared to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. His talents were not limited to music; he was a gifted painter, a skilled writer, and fluent in several languages. By his mid-teens, he was already composing works of staggering genius. At age 16, he wrote his String Octet, a masterpiece of youthful energy and brilliant counterpoint. A year later, at 17, he composed his Overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream, a work of such gossamer perfection and originality that it remains one of the most beloved works in the orchestral repertoire.

The Grand Tour and a European Mind

As part of his broad education, Mendelssohn embarked on a series of travels across Europe. These trips were not just for pleasure; they were a source of profound artistic inspiration. A trip to Great Britain resulted in a visit to the Scottish highlands, which inspired his moody and atmospheric Symphony No. 3, the "Scottish" Symphony, and his concert overture The Hebrides (Fingal's Cave). A long journey through Italy gave birth to his Symphony No. 4, the "Italian" Symphony, a work of boundless sunshine and energy. During his travels, he met and befriended many of the leading cultural figures of the age, including the elderly writer Goethe and the composers Frédéric Chopin and Hector Berlioz.

A Champion of Music in Leipzig

While Mendelssohn was always a welcome guest in the great capitals of Europe, he made his professional home in Leipzig. In 1835, at the age of 26, he was appointed director of the city's famous Gewandhaus Orchestra. He quickly transformed it into one of the finest ensembles in Europe, known for its precision and artistic integrity. As a conductor, he championed not only the music of the past, like Bach and Handel, but also the works of his contemporaries, such as his friend Robert Schumann. In 1843, Mendelssohn achieved another of his lifelong goals by founding the Leipzig Conservatory. He established a curriculum based on his own high standards of musical craftsmanship and attracted a world-class faculty, creating one of the most important and influential music schools in the world.

Masterpieces of a Romantic Classicist

Mendelssohn's musical style is often described as "Romantic Classicism." He had a deep reverence for the formal clarity, balance, and contrapuntal skill of his musical heroes, Bach, Handel, and Mozart. However, he infused these classical forms with the expressive color, lyrical melody, and emotional depth of the new Romantic era. His music is rarely stormy or excessively emotional; instead, it is characterized by its elegance, grace, and a sense of perfect finish. His Violin Concerto in E minor (1844) is one of the most popular concertos ever written, a perfectly crafted work that is both virtuosic and deeply lyrical. His oratorio Elijah, inspired by the works of Handel, is a powerful and dramatic masterpiece of the choral repertoire. For the piano, his Songs Without Words are collections of exquisite, lyrical miniatures that perfectly capture the Romantic sensibility.

Fanny and Felix: A Shared Soul

No figure was more important in Mendelssohn's life than his older sister, Fanny Mendelssohn. She was also a musical prodigy and a brilliant composer in her own right. The two were incredibly close, sharing their musical ideas and offering each other constant support. Due to the conservative social conventions of the time and the objections of their father, Fanny was discouraged from pursuing a public career as a composer. Felix, while supportive, also held to the conventional view that a woman's place was in the home. Despite this, she composed over 460 pieces of music. Her sudden death from a stroke in May 1847 was a blow from which Felix never recovered. Utterly devastated by the loss of his closest artistic confidante, his own health, which had always been fragile, collapsed. He died just six months later, at the age of 38.

Legacy

Felix Mendelssohn was a central, civilizing force in the music of the early Romantic period. He was a complete musician whose genius expressed itself not only in his compositions but in his work as a conductor, pianist, organist, and educator. After his death, his reputation suffered a long decline, fueled by changing musical tastes and, most viciously, by the anti-Semitic attacks of composers like Richard Wagner, which cast a long shadow over his legacy. In the 20th century, however, his music was fully re-evaluated, and he is now recognized once again as one of the greatest and most gifted composers of his era.

Section 4: References and Further Reading

• Todd, R. Larry. Mendelssohn: A Life in Music. Oxford University Press, 2003.

• Mercer-Taylor, Peter. The Cambridge Companion to Mendelssohn. Cambridge University Press, 2004.

• Brown, Clive. A Portrait of Mendelssohn. Yale University Press, 2003.

• Mendelssohn, Fanny, and Felix Mendelssohn. The Letters of Fanny Hensel to Felix Mendelssohn. Edited by Marcia J. Citron, Pendragon Press, 1987.