Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy

Romanticism

His style joins a Romantic voice with Classical perfection of form.

💡 Did you know? Mendelssohn was a prodigy who wrote masterpieces as a teenager: his „A Midsummer Night's Dream“ overture at 17.

Hamburg

He grew up in Berlin; his grandfather was the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn.

💡 Did you know? Mendelssohn came from a wealthy, educated Jewish family that had converted to Christianity; his grandfather was the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn.

St Matthew Passion

The Berlin performance launched the Bach revival.

💡 Did you know? With his 1829 performance of Bach's St Matthew Passion (the first since Bach's death) the 20-year-old Mendelssohn saved Bach from oblivion.

Wedding March

He wrote the overture to 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' at just 17: the rest of the incidental music followed 17 years later.

💡 Did you know? Mendelssohn's Wedding March still plays at countless weddings worldwide, as newlyweds process out.

Scottish and Italian

Scotland also inspired the 'Hebrides Overture' about Fingal's Cave.

💡 Did you know? His „Scottish“ and „Italian“ symphonies captured his travels in sound: mist and ruins in the north, sun and dance in the south.

E minor

Op. 64 (1844): one of the most performed violin concertos in the world.

💡 Did you know? Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor is among the most beloved and most performed in the world.

Gewandhaus Orchestra

Under his direction it became the leading orchestra in Europe.

💡 Did you know? As head of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Mendelssohn made Leipzig a centre of European musical life.

Germany's first conservatory

Today Leipzig's University of Music and Theatre bears his name.

💡 Did you know? In 1843 Mendelssohn founded the first German conservatory in Leipzig: still one of the most renowned.

Fanny

Some of her songs were first published under Felix's name: a telling fate for a woman of the 19th century.

💡 Did you know? His sister Fanny was equally gifted: but as a woman she could barely publish under her own name; some works appeared under Felix's name.

Elijah

Premiered in Birmingham in 1846: in England Mendelssohn was a celebrated star and a favourite of Queen Victoria.

💡 Did you know? His oratorio „Elijah“ deliberately harks back to the great sacred works of Handel and Bach.

38

He died in Leipzig in 1847, a few months after his sister Fanny, following a series of strokes.

💡 Did you know? Mendelssohn died at just 38, soon after the death of his beloved sister Fanny; the loss had struck him hard.

at 16

The Octet in E-flat major, Op. 20, is still regarded as a miracle of youthful genius.

💡 Did you know? Goethe compared the prodigy Felix to the young Mozart: whom he himself had heard play.

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy was a German Romantic composer and a prodigy: famous for his „Midsummer Night's Dream“ music and the Wedding March.

💡 Did you know? By reviving Bach's St Matthew Passion in 1829, he saved Johann Sebastian Bach from being forgotten.