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Not even Mozart could produce such burning masterpieces while still in his mid-teens. But by the age of 17 Mendelssohn had reached compositional maturity - as well as being a double prodigy on the violin and piano, an exceptional athlete (a particularly strong swimmer), a highly gifted poet, multi-linguist and watercolourist, and an inspired philosopher more than capable of competing with learned Berlin University professors. Although it was music which exercised his imagination above all, he excelled at virtually anything that could hold his attention long enough.

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.

 

Fanny Mendelssohn, pictured here in this portrait drawn in 1842, by Moritz Daniel Oppenheim

 

If Mendelssohn's progress so far had been nothing short of phenomenal, no one could have predicted what was shortly to follow: an astonishingly accomplished String Octet in 1825 and, only a year later, the magical overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream, arguably two of the most stunning displays of youthful talent in western music. In 1829 he secured the reputation of another of the great masters when he conducted the first performance of Bach's St Matthew Passion in almost a century.

During the summer of 1834 Mendelssohn was appointed music director of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and speedily transformed it from a relatively undistinguished band of near amateurs into a virtuoso professional body, drawing vastly increased salaries. The orchestra’s repertoire increased ten-fold, including the premiere of Schubert's 'Grea' C major Symphony which Schumann had recently unearthed in Vienna; distinguished soloists from all over Europe queued up to perform with them. Modern concepts of orchestral management and concert structure can be said to derive from Mendelssohn's extraordinary period at Leipzig.

The composer's happiness was increased further by his marriage to Cecile Jeanrenaud in 1837, a pretty girl whose quiet and calm disposition complemented Mendelssohn's delicate nature to perfection. It was an inspired partnership, one which - to Felix's great relief - gained the approval of Fanny and produced no fewer than five children. In 1841, Mendelssohn was seduced away from Leipzig as part of an ill-fated move to Berlin, where myriad political intrigues and petty jealousies reduced him to a state of exhaustion within a matter of months. Feeling the need for some emotional cossetting, Mendelssohn decided to visit Britain, where he had established a huge following in the 1830s. In 1842 he enjoyed his first personal contact with the young Queen Victoria and her consort, Prince Albert. In gratitude, he dedicated his ‘Scottish’ Symphony to the Queen, which had been performed as the climax of his stay in London that summer.

 

                                                                             

                                                                                 Cécile Charlotte Sophie Jeanrenaud

 

The British people quickly took this most gentle of composers to their hearts. Indeed, such was the 37-year-old Mendelssohn's impact in England that in 1846 he directed the first performance of his new oratorio, Elijah, as the chief attraction of the Birmingham Festival. The new work scored a triumphant success, but sadly the composer's time was fast running out. In March 1847 Mendelssohn's sister Fanny died, prematurely dealing an incalculable emotional blow to the composer. He never fully recovered, and following a slight stroke died in November of the same year. Queen Victoria was distraught: "We were horrified, astounded and distressed to read in the papers of the death of Mendelssohn, the greatest musical genius since Mozart and the most amiable man."

If Mendelssohn was in the possession of a talent that seemed inexhaustible, he lacked the inner determination to develop his powers to their full potential. He was a sensitive man who was ultimately destroyed by the need to counterbalance his extraordinary gifts with a small number of intimate relationships that he hoped would shield him from the demands of being a musical celebrity. As he once put it: "The thoughts which are expressed to me by music that I love are not too indefinite to be put into words, but on the contrary, too definite.

Tune in all week for a different concerto by the composer. Check on Facebook and twitter for each day's selection.

 

Source: http://icls.fimc.net/hearhere/article.asp?id=598374