Felix Mendelssohn (1809-47)

Mendelssohn came from a wealthy and cultured Jewish family. By the time he was nine, he was a good enough pianist to appear in public; at 10 he joined the Singakademie in Berlin; by the age of 12 he had composed several symphonies, two operas and other works. Seeing that his son’s future was to be in music and how many paths were closed to Jews in the musical world, Mendelssohn’s father decided to convert from the Jewish faith to Protestantism. Later, the composer and his wife followed suit, adding “Bartholdy” to their name to distinguish them from other Mendelssohns who were still Jewish.

The Mendelssohn house was always filled with the distinguished and influential. He was taken by his teacher to Weimar and introduced to Goethe. The 70-year-old writer and the 12-year-old prodigy became firm friends. All who met the young Mendelssohn and heard him play left incredulous. Here, without a doubt, was a second Mozart. In fact, by the time he was 16 Mendelssohn was composing music of far greater maturity than that which Mozart had written at a similar age: the overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream and his Octet are extraordinarily assured and original. He was only 20 when he conducted a performance of Bach’s St Matthew Passion at the Berlin Singakademie, an event which, more than any other, propelled a general revival of interest in Bach’s music. Not long after, he made the first of 10 visits to England, fêted as a celebrity and conducting the premiere of his C minor Symphony before travelling to Scotland.

After an unhappy spell conducting in Düsseldorf, he was made musical director of the famous Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. During 1835 and the next five years, Mendelssohn turned the orchestra into the finest in the world. In 1837 he married the 17-year-old daughter of a French Protestant clergyman and, as you’d expect, enjoyed an idyllically happy life together with their five children. Six years later he founded the Leipzig Conservatory. Now working at a furious pace – conducting, teaching, composing, giving concerts – his health began to suffer. Pains in the head and abnormal fatigue kept recurring. He was in Birmingham for the premiere of his oratorio Elijah in August 1846 (one of the greatest receptions of his career) before returning to Leipzig, followed by a further visit to England in the spring of 1847 where he played for Queen Victoria, his long-time and fervent admirer.

In May, news reached him that his beloved sister Fanny had died suddenly. The loss had a devastating effect on Mendelssohn. Hearing of her death, he became unconscious, rupturing a blood vessel in the head. He only ever partly recovered. All the life went out of him, he began suffering terrible depressions and agonising pain. Less than six months later, he too was dead. He was 38. There were memorial services held in most of the principal cities in Germany as well as in London, Manchester, Birmingham and Paris. Jeremy Nicholas

Essential works

Violin Concerto Nigel Kennedy; English Chamber Orchestra / Jeffrey Tate EMI 749663-2 Read review

Symphonies (complete) London Symphony Orchestra / Claudio Abbado DG 471 467-2GB4 Read review

Symphonies Nos 3, "Scottish" and 4, “Italian” LSO /Abbado DG 427 810-2GDC (from above set)

String quartets Emerson Quartet DG 477 5370GH4 Read review

Songs without words Sebastian Knauer Berlin Classics 0016372BC Read review

Octet Nash Ensemble Wigmore Hall Live WHLIVE0001 Read review

A Midsummer Night’s Dream Delia Wallis, Lilian Watson; Finchley Children's Music Group, London Symphony Orchestra  / André Previn EMI 574980-2 Read review

Elijah Bryn Terfel, Renée Fleming, Libby Crabtree, Patricia Bardon, Sara Fulgoni, Matthew Munro, John Mark Ainsley, John Bowen, Neal Davies, Geoffrey Moses; Edinburgh Festival Chorus; Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment / Paul Daniel Decca 455 688-2DH2 Read review