Felix Mendelssohn wrote six numbered string quartets which were published during his lifetime. Tune in every day at 1:00 PM (CST) to hear one played in full. Only 5 days in the week though. Which will host Chris Wolf pick?

Born Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Felix Mendelssohn, as he's known to us, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. A grandson of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, he was born into a prominent Jewish family. Although initially he was raised without religion, he was later baptised as a Reformed Christian. 

Mendelssohn wrote symphonies, concerti, oratorios, piano music and chamber music. His best-known works include his Overture and incidental music for A Midsummer Night's Dream, the Italian Symphony, the Scottish Symphony, the overture The Hebrides, his mature Violin Concerto, and his String Octet.  Mendelssohn's Wedding March from A Midsummer Night's Dream was played at the wedding of Queen Victoria's daughter, Princess Victoria, The Princess Royal, to Crown Prince Frederick of Prussia in 1858, and it remains popular at marriage ceremonies today. Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words are his most famous solo piano compositions. After a long period of relative denigration due to changing musical tastes and anti-Semitism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, his creative originality has now been recognised and re-evaluated. He is now among the most popular composers of the Romantic era.

Mozart Shmozart!  

Mendelssohn was recognized early as a musical prodigy, but his parents were cautious and never sought to capitalise on his talent. He made his first public concert appearance at age 9, when he participated in a chamber music concert accompanying a horn duo. 

Mendelssohn was also 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 12 string symphonies for such concerts. These works were ignored for over a century, but are now recorded and occasionally played in concerts.

He wrote his first published work, a piano quartet, by the time he was 13. It was probably Abraham Mendelssohn who procured the publication of Mendelssohn's early piano quartet by the house of Schlesinger. In 1824, the 15-year-old wrote his first symphony for full orchestra (in C minor, Op. 11).

The following is a conversation between German composer, conductor and music teacher to Mendelssohn, Carl Friedrich Zelter and German writer and statesman, the elderly Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

"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 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."

This week, Intermezzo host Chris Wolf will feature Mendelssohn's String Quartets:

 

String Quartet No. 1 in E-flat major, Op. 12 composed in 1829

- String Quartet No. 2 in A minor, Op. 13 composed in 1827

- String Quartet No. 3 in D major, Op. 44, No. 1 composed in 1838

 - String Quartet No. 4 in E minor, Op. 44, No. 2 composed in 1837

- String Quartet No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 44, No. 3 composed in 1838

- String Quartet No. 6 in F minor, Op. 80 composed in 1847

 

Mendelssohn also wrote another quartet in E-flat major at the age of 14, just after he had composed his 13 string symphonies. However, the quartet was never published in his lifetime and so was never assigned an opus number.

Mendelssohn's first two numbered quartets were published out of order, whilst his next three quartets were published together as Op. 44 and were all dedicated to Crown Prince Gustavus of Sweden.

Mendelssohn's final string quartet was composed after the death of his sister, which was a devastating blow to Mendelssohn. The quartet was also his last major work, as he died only two months after its completion. The piece was published shortly before his death along with a set of four pieces for string quartet also composed in his final years.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/String_Quartets_(Mendelssohn)