Composer | Felix Mendelssohn

Born in 1809 in Hamburg, Mendelssohn was the son of a wealthy, intellectual Jewish banker who renounced Judaism and brought his children up without religion, fleeing to Berlin in 1811 to escape Napoleon. Recognized as musical prodigies, Felix and his sister Fanny studied music from an early age, and by 17, Felix had performed publicly, published work, composed six string chamber works, his first symphony, and his Midsummer Night’s Dream concert overture. The elderly poet Goethe compared Mendelssohn’s genius favorably with that of the young Mozart, whom he had also known.

Disappointed of a post in Berlin, despite a performance of St Matthew’s Passion, which pioneered the revived appreciation of J S Bach’s work, and following the failure of his first opera in 1827, Mendelssohn divided his time between Düsseldorf and Britain, where his genius was recognized. He also traveled widely to Vienna, Florence, Milan, Rome, and Naples; during these years, he composed his popular Italian and Scottish symphonies and Hebrides Overture. Appointed in 1833 as Director of Music to the City of Düsseldorf, a festival performance of Israel In Egypt revived interest in Handel’s music.

In 1835, as Director of Music in Leipzig, he founded its Conservatoire, which became the heart of his essentially conservative musical tastes, setting him apart from more radical contemporaries such as Liszt, Berlioz, and Wagner, the latter attacking Mendelssohn as a degenerate, Jewish mediocrity in German music, a criticism finding ultimate expression in the banning of his work by the Nazis.

In Britain, Mendelssohn was rapturously acclaimed as the favorite composer of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. His statue was set up in the Crystal Palace, and many of his works premiered, including the oratorio Elijah commissioned by the Birmingham Festival of 1846. After a series of strokes, aged only 38, Mendelssohn died in November 1847 and was buried in Leipzig.

Baptized a Christian at the age of 27, 1837, Mendelssohn married the daughter of a French Protestant clergyman and had five children. He also enjoyed a close relationship with the Swedish soprano Jenny Lind. His musical reputation has steadily risen since the 1960s.