Biography of Felix Mendelssohn. Felix Mendelssohn: biography Mendelssohn's biography brief summary and most important

1. In 1877, Emperor Alexander II escorted troops to the Russian-Turkish War. Looking at the soldiers of the Life Guards Cossack Regiment, he exclaimed: “They go to war like they go to a wedding!” After this, he officially designated Mendelssohn's wedding march as the march of this regiment.

2. Mendelssohn wrote his famous wedding march, included in the overture to the comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream, at the age of 17. However, this work “came in handy” for him much later.

3. The Wedding March became popular after Mendelssohn's death. In 1858, it sounded during the wedding of the future Prussian King Frederick III and the English Princess Victoria Adelheide (Queen Victoria's eldest daughter).

4. Composer Richard Wagner, considered Mendelssohn's enemy, called his march "a sweet jingle without any depth."

5. The organ on which Mendelssohn performed his march is located in St. Anne's Church in Tottenham (London).

6. Even books have been written in honor of this piece of music! Thus, the English writer Mortimer Carol created a novel, which she called “Mendelssohn’s March.”

Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy is a man of amazing destiny. His life seems to justify the meaning of his name - “happy”, although his earthly journey was not long. Unlike many composers of his era, he did not experience need, lack of recognition, or disappointment - and this probably determined the shape of his music. It does not contain Beethoven's heroism, Liszt's passion or Schumann's penetration into the dark depths of the soul - it is characterized by classical clarity and harmony, balance combined with romantic spirituality.

The composer came from an outstanding family. His grandfather, Moses Mendelssohn, a philosopher, earned the nickname “Jewish Socrates,” and his father, Abram Mendelssohn, thanks to his own entrepreneurial spirit, became the head of a banking house. The family adopted the second surname - Bartholdi - shortly after the birth of Felix, with the adoption of Christianity.

Felix's musical abilities showed up early. The family situation contributed to this - the Mendelssohn family cared about the education of children and valued art, communicated with philosophers (including Friedrich Hegel) and musicians. Felix's first teacher was his mother, and then he studied with pianist Ludwig Berger, violinist Eduard Ritz, and composer Karl Zelter. Fanny, Felix’s sister, also studied music. She was an excellent pianist, but the family believed that a woman’s destiny was marriage and motherhood, and not a musical career, and Fanny did not become a professional musician, but for Felix she always remained a very close person.

At the age of nine, Mendelssohn performed as a pianist, and at ten he made his debut as a vocalist. At the same time he began composing music. The young composer created piano pieces, sonatas and even symphonies that seemed mature beyond his age. His mentor Zelter was a friend of Johann Wolfgang Goethe, whose work Felix admired, and introduced him to his student. Goethe received the twelve-year-old musician very warmly and listened with pleasure to his performance of the works of Johann Sebastian Bach and Mendelssohn’s own works: “I am Saul, and you are my David!” - said Goethe.

By the age of sixteen, Mendelssohn was already the author of many works, including the opera “Two Nephews.” The family developed a tradition of Sunday musical matinees: familiar musicians gathered in the house and performed Felix’s compositions. Wanting to hear an objective and authoritative opinion about his son’s abilities, his father brought him to Paris, where Mendelssohn’s works were approved by composer Luigi Cherubini and Pierre Baillot. The young composer was not impressed by the Parisian musical life: he concluded that the French value only external showiness in music.

Already in his youth, Mendelssohn declared himself as an innovative composer. In his Octet in E-flat major, a new type of romantic scherzo appears - light, fantastic, leading into the world of bizarre fairy-tale visions. Such skerziness became the ideal embodiment for the images of William Shakespeare's comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream. In 1826, he wrote an overture based on this play - and thought of it not as an introduction to a dramatic performance, but as an independent work intended for concert performance (other musical numbers for the comedy were created much later - in 1843).

The subject of the young composer’s ardent interest was the work of Bach, almost forgotten at that time - even Zelter considered Bach’s choral music, with which he introduced Felix, only as educational material. Through the efforts of Mendelssohn, in 1829, for the first time after Bach’s death, the St. Matthew Passion was performed. That same year, Mendelssohn appeared in London, where he conducted works by Ludwig van Beethoven, Carl von Weber and his own, and then he toured Scotland. The impressions were embodied in the Hebrides Overture; in addition, the composer began working on the Scottish Symphony (he completed it in 1842).

In subsequent years, Mendelssohn toured a lot: Italy, Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Paris, and again London, where his Italian Symphony was performed and the first collection of “Songs Without Words” was published. For two years, starting in 1833, he was music director in Düsseldorf, and in 1835 he accepted an offer to take the post of conductor of the Gewandhaus symphony concerts in Leipzig. In his concert programs he included works by Bach, Mozart, Handel, Beethoven, Weber, as well as his own compositions. The connection with the traditions of Bach and Handel was expressed in the creation of the oratorio “Paul” (according to the composer’s plan, this was the first part of the trilogy). During the Leipzig period, many works were born - new “Songs without Words”, Rondo Capriccioso, a number of chamber instrumental ensembles, the overture “Ruy Blas”, Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, symphony-cantata “Hymn of Praise” and others.

In 1841, at the invitation of King Friedrich Wilhelm IV, the composer moved to Berlin. The king intended to found an Academy of Fine Arts, and it was assumed that Mendelssohn would head its music department, but the king lost interest in this plan, and Mendelssohn's position remained unclear. He continues touring and visits England again. Back in 1840, he petitioned for the opening of a conservatory in Leipzig - and in 1843 the first German conservatory was opened, and Mendelssohn headed it.

In 1846, Mendelssohn completed the oratorio “Elijah” and began work on the third part of the planned trilogy, “Christ,” but the implementation of the plan was prevented

poor health. The death of his beloved sister Fanny in 1847 was a heavy blow for him, and in November of the same year Mendelssohn himself passed away.

“People often complain that music is too ambiguous, they have to think when they listen, it’s so unclear, at the same time everyone understands the words. With me, this happens exactly the opposite, and not only regarding the entire speech, but also individual words.”

Felix Mendelssohn

Jacob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy was born in Hamburg on February 3, 1809 in the family of banker Abraham, who was the son of the famous Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, and Leah Solomon. The parents sought to abandon Judaism; their children received no religious education and were baptized into the Lutheran Church in 1816.

The surname Bartholdi was added at the suggestion of Leah's brother, Jacob. Abraham later explained this decision in a letter to Felix as a means of showing a decisive break with the traditions of his father Moses. Although Felix signed Mendelssohn-Bartholdy as a sign of obedience to his father, he nevertheless did not object to using only the first part of the surname.

The family moved to Berlin in 1811. Their parents strived to give Felix, his brother Paul, and sisters Fanny and Rebecca the best possible education. The elder sister, Fanny, became a famous pianist and amateur composer. Her father initially thought she was more musically gifted, but did not consider a career in music suitable for a young girl. Felix Mendelssohn with his beloved sister Fanny

At the age of 6, Felix Mendelssohn began receiving lessons from his mother, and from the age of seven he studied with Marie Bigot in Paris. From 1817 he studied composition with Karl Friedrich Zelter. At the age of 9, he made his debut when he took part in a chamber concert in Berlin.

Zelter introduced Felix to his friend Goethe, who later shared his impressions of the young talent, citing a comparison with Mozart:

“Musical miracles... are probably not so rare anymore; but what this little man is able to do, playing improvisation or from sight, is borderline magical. I can't believe this is possible at such a young age."

“Yet you heard Mozart in his seventh year in Frankfurt?” Zelter said. “Yes,” answered Goethe, “... but what your student has already achieved has the same relation to the Mozart of that time as the cultural conversation of adults has to the babbling of a child.”

Later, Felix met with and set many of his poems to music.

Years of study

Since 1819, Mendelssohn began composing music without stopping.

Mendelssohn was admitted to the Berlin Choral Academy in 1819. From that moment on, he composed non-stop.

It must be said that Felix was a very prolific composer from childhood. The first edition of his works was published in 1822, when the young composer was only 13 years old. And at the age of 15 he wrote his first symphony for orchestra in C minor (Op. 11). A year later - a work that showed the full strength of his genius - Octet in E flat major (Op.20). This Octet and the overture A Midsummer Night's Dream, written in 1826 (of which the Wedding March was a part), are the best known of the composer's early works.

In 1824, Mendelssohn began taking lessons from the composer and virtuoso pianist Ignaz Moscheles, who once admitted that he could teach Felix little. Moscheles became Mendelssohn's colleague and friend for life.

In addition to music, Mendelssohn's education included fine arts, literature, languages, and philosophy. Heise translated Terence's Andria for his mentor in 1825. The teacher was amazed and published it as the work of “his student F****.” This translation became Mendelssohn's qualifying work for the right to study at the University of Berlin, where he attended lectures on the aesthetics of Georg Hegel, the history of Eduard Gans and the geography of Karl Ritter.

Beginning of a conducting career

Mendelssohn's office in Leipzig

At the Choral Academy of Berlin, Mendelssohn became a conductor, and, with the support of the academy director Selter, as well as with the help of his friend Eduard Devrint, he was able to stage the St. Matthew Passion in 1829. The success of this work marked the beginning of a revival of Bach's music in Germany and then throughout Europe.

That same year, Felix visited Great Britain for the first time, where he held a Philharmonic Society concert. By that time, his friend, Moscheles, was already living in London. He introduced Mendelssohn to influential musical circles. After the capital's program, the composer traveled through Scotland, where he sketched overtures that later became very famous - “The Hebrides” and “Fingal's Cave.”

After returning to Germany, he was offered a teaching position at the University of Berlin, but Mendelssohn turned it down. For several years, the composer traveled around Europe, where he wrote a number of works, and in 1832 he published the first book of Songs Without Words. On March 28, 1837, Mendelssohn married Cecile Jeanrenot (the daughter of a Protestant clergyman)

In 1833, Felix Mendelssohn became conductor of the Rhine Music Festival in Düsseldorf, where he presented his works annually. And two years later he began active conducting work in Leipzig, setting himself the goal of making it a musical center on a European scale.

The following year, 1836, the composer received an honorary doctorate from the University of Leipzig. That same year he met Cécile Jeanrenot, the daughter of a Protestant clergyman. On March 28, 1837, their wedding took place. The marriage was happy and the couple had five children.

At the peak of popularity

The King of Prussia did not give up attempts to lure the composer to Berlin; as a result, Mendelssohn was appointed music director of the Academy of Arts. Until 1845, he worked periodically in Berlin, without leaving his post in Leipzig. From time to time he traveled to England, performing his work in London and Birmingham, where he met Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert. The royal couple were admirers of his music.

In 1843, Felix Mendelssohn founded the Leipzig Conservatory of Music, the first institution of its kind in Germany, thus realizing his dream and putting Leipzig on the map of music.

He also completed a number of his works, including the Scottish Symphony and the Violin Concerto. In 1844 he conducted five Philharmonic concerts in London.

Gradually, the composer's health began to deteriorate, and three years later he was literally devastated by the death of his sister Fanny. Having left for Switzerland in order to improve his health, he completed the String Quartet in F minor, and returned to Leipzig, having completely exhausted his vital energy. Felix Mendelssohn died on November 4, 1847 at the age of 38.

FELIX MENDELSON

ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: AQUARIUS

NATIONALITY: GERMAN

MUSICAL STYLE: ROMANTIC

ICONIC WORK: “WEDDING MARCH” FROM MUSIC FOR THE COMEDY “A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM” (1842)

WHERE HAVE YOU HEARD THIS MUSIC: AS THE FINAL PART OF A MIDDLE NUMBER OF WEDDING CEREMONIES

WORDS OF THE WISE: “Ever since I’ve been making music, I’ve been firmly committed to the rule that I set for myself from the very beginning: NOT TO WRITE A LINE TO PLEASE THE PUBLIC OR THE PRETTY GIRL WHO WANTED TO HEAR IT.” THIS AND THIS; BUT WRITE SOLELY AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION AND TO MY PERSONAL PLEASURE.”

Felix Mendelssohn began composing music as a child, and at the age of thirteen he published his first piano quartet. The beginning was great, the publications continued: symphonies, concerts, songs for piano and voice - the composer’s legacy is striking in its enormity.

Except that not all the songs were written by Mendelssohn. Among the composer's works were works by his sister Fanny. That was the only way to show her compositions to the world - by attributing their authorship to her brother.

It's always like this with the Mendelssohns: you think you see one person, but in fact there are two of them. Felix moved in society, traveled around Europe; Fanny stayed at home and kept house. Felix conducted the best orchestras, Fanny was forced to be content with amateur quartets. Felix became an international superstar; no one had heard of Fanny. But, despite all the differences, the life of the brother was inseparable from the life of the sister - and so on until death.

WHAT'S IN YOUR NAME?

The Mendelssohns were proud of their descent from the eminent eighteenth-century German thinker and Jewish philosopher Moses (Moses) Mendelssohn. Moses' son, Abraham, became a successful banker, but did not change his father's covenants: education and intellectual achievements were highly valued in the family.

However, with his father's faith, Abraham acted differently. All four of his children were baptized, and Abraham himself and his wife Leah converted to Lutheranism in 1822. By changing their religion they hoped to keep their children safe and make their lives easier, since prejudice against Jews was widespread and discrimination - if not outright persecution - was a widespread practice. Abraham not only chose a more “prosperous” faith, but also corrected his surname: he began to call himself Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, borrowing “Bartholdy” from the former owners of the real estate he acquired. Abraham undoubtedly expected that over time the Jewish Mendelssohn would disappear by itself. (His children were not delighted with the double surname, but used it out of respect for their father.)

The first three Mendelssohn children were born in Hamburg (Fanny in 1805, Felix in 1809, Rebekah in 1811), but in 1811 the family fled the city to escape Napoleonic army. They settled in Berlin, where their fourth child, Paul, was born.

TWO FOR THE PRICE OF ONE

Both Fanny and Felix began taking piano lessons at the age of six; being four years older than her brother, Fanny was in the lead at first, and everyone was talking about her extraordinary talent. However, Felix soon caught up with his sister, and listeners were amazed by his excellent technique and emotional expressiveness of performance. The joint education of brother and sister ended once and for all when Fanny turned fifteen and she was informed that from now on she must attend to what is really important for a girl, that is, prepare for the role of wife and mother. “Perhaps music will become his [Felix’s] profession, while for you it can and should remain only a charming trifle,” Abraham wrote to his daughter.

In 1825, Abraham took Felix to Paris to meet famous French musicians. In Fanny's letters one can see envy of her brother, of his capabilities, envy that Felix seemed not to notice - or refused to notice. When he criticized the Parisian musicians and Fanny was indignant in response, Felix snapped: “Which of us is in Paris, you or me? So maybe I should know better.”

Felix was not even twenty when he plunged headlong into musical creativity. In the summer of 1826, the premiere of one of his works, which has not lost popularity to this day, took place - the overture to Shakespeare's comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream. The attempt to write an opera was much less successful. "Camacho's Wedding" failed miserably. Stung, Mendelssohn never took up opera again.

However, in 1827 and 1830 he published two collections of songs. Three songs in each collection were written by his sister - publication under her name would be considered extremely indecent.

After studying for two years at the University of Berlin, Felix felt ready for the career destined for him - the career of a virtuoso pianist and talented composer. He headed to London, where in May 1829 his Symphony in C minor was first performed, enthusiastically received by the public.

His sister, meanwhile, fulfilled her destiny by getting married. For Fanny and her fiancé, the artist Wilhelm Hansel, the path to the crown was long and difficult; they fell in love in 1823, but Abraham and Lea opposed the marriage due to Hansel's unstable income. The lovers waited for parental blessing until Hansel received a place at the Academy of Fine Arts.

Fanny's fears that marriage would deprive her of any opportunity to compose music were dispelled the very next day after the wedding, when Hansel sat his young wife down at the piano and placed a blank sheet of music in front of her. Of course, household chores took up a lot of her time. In 1830, Fanny gave birth to a son, named Sebastian Ludwig Felix - after three of her favorite composers. All other pregnancies ended in miscarriages. And yet, Fanny, with the support of Hansel, set up a music salon in her house, organized a small choir and practiced composition at every opportunity.

KEEPER OF THE FAMILY

Felix turned into a celebrity, shining in European concert halls. However, in 1833 his professional pride was dealt a blow when the Berlin Vocal Academy did not want Mendelssohn as its new director, preferring Karl Friedrich Rungenhagen to him. In fact, Felix was Rungenhagen's superior in every way - not to mention talent - and, according to persistent rumors, Felix was rejected because of his Jewish heritage. Felix then concentrated his efforts on the Cologne Music Festival and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, of which he was appointed musical director in 1835.

That same year, Abraham died suddenly from a stroke. Shocked, Felix took his father's death as a command from above to finally put an end to the irresponsibility of youth and take on the responsibilities of an adult, mature man. Having firmly decided to get married, he began to look for a bride and in March 1837 married nineteen-year-old Cecilia Jeanrenot. Cecilia was from Frankfurt, and although Felix's relatives never fell in love with his wife, the Mendelssohns had five children, and everyone who knew this couple unanimously testifies to the love and devotion of both spouses.

Felix, who had settled down, took on another responsibility - to preserve the Mendelssohn family foundations. When the family started talking about whether Fanny should publish her works, Felix bluntly spoke out against this idea. Fanny, he declared, “respects herself too much as a woman” to become a professional composer. “The main thing for her is home, and she does not think about the public, nor about the musical world, nor even about music itself, until she satisfies the immediate needs of her family.”

Yet in the 1840s, Fanny expanded the scope of her activities. The Hansels spent almost entirely the year one thousand eight hundred and forty in Italy, where Fanny’s work gained admiring fans. Returning to Berlin, she began to compose with renewed energy and in 1846, against the wishes of her brother, she began to look for publishers. The search was soon crowned with success: seven collections of songs were published one after another.

FELIX MENDELSON BECAME A FAMOUS COMPOSER WHILE HIS EQUALLY GIFTED SISTER WALKED IN OBSCURE.

The life of a touring conductor was exhausting for Felix. He complained about the excessive workload and missed his wife and children while traveling. And if Fanny’s world expanded, Felix dreamed of narrowing his world.

DEATH FOR TWO

On May 14, 1847, Fanny was rehearsing with an amateur chamber orchestra for a Sunday performance, they were to play Felix's "Walpurgisnacht". Fanny sat down at the piano, and suddenly her hands seemed to be frozen. This has happened before - and passed quickly; So, nothing, just a slight malaise. She went into the next room to wet her hands with warm vinegar; listening to the music, she said: “How beautiful!” - and lost consciousness. She died that evening without regaining consciousness, apparently due to a stroke.

When Felix was informed of his sister's death, he collapsed into a deep faint. Felix could not bring himself to go to Berlin for the funeral. That summer, friends found him “old and sad.” On October 28, Felix excitedly spoke English, Cecile called a doctor, and he determined that the composer had suffered a stroke. Felix alternately came to his senses and fell into oblivion; One day he stood up and screamed shrilly. He died on November 4 and was buried in the Berlin cemetery next to Fanny - less than six months after her death.

In the second half of the nineteenth century, Felix's work was subject to severe revision, especially in Germany. Although he professed Christianity all his life, the Germans stubbornly considered him a Jew. Wagner set the tone; according to him, this composer “never managed to touch our hearts and souls, to evoke in us that deep feeling that we expect from art,” solely because of his Jewish origin. Under the Nazis, Mendelssohn was erased from the history of German music. The Felix monument that stood in front of the Leipzig Concert Hall was demolished and sold for scrap. But after the end of World War II, both in Europe and America, Mendelssohn’s music again won over the public, and today he is confidently placed in the forefront of musical geniuses.

Fanny had nothing to lose, since she did not acquire any professional reputation during her lifetime. They forgot about a handful of her publications, and if they remembered her, it was only in connection with Felix - they say, the composer had such a sister. Interest in it was revived in the 1960s, when feminist trends began to penetrate musicology. Today her works are being reissued, although the opinions of critics remain contradictory: some see the musician as no less brilliant than her brother, others see her as a talent that has not received proper development, and still others consider Fanny Mendelssohn an uninventive and even mediocre composer.

I AM NOT ME, BUT MY SISTER

Mendelssohn gave concerts in England more than once, and was eventually introduced to Queen Victoria and her husband Prince Albert. The prince, a German by nationality, and the queen, who loved music, liked the composer, as they say, at court, and soon he began to be invited to family musical evenings at Buckingham Palace.

One evening the queen expressed a desire to sing something from Mendelssohn's first collection of songs and asked the author to accompany her. Having chosen her favorite “Italian” song, the queen, according to Mendelssohn, performed it “very sweetly and purely.”

And only when the song was finished did the composer consider it his duty to admit that “Italian” was actually written by his sister.

THE WRONG PIANIST WAS ATTACKED!

Mendelssohn had a phenomenal musical memory that amazed his colleagues. In 1844, he was invited to be a soloist in Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto, and when he arrived at the concert, he discovered that no one had the sheet music for the piano part. Although Mendelssohn had not looked at these notes for at least two years, he played from memory, and played brilliantly.

And much earlier, he had accomplished an even more impressive feat in a performance of Bach's St. Matthew Passion, which Mendelssohn literally saved from oblivion. Mendelssohn intended not only to conduct the mass, but also to perform the piano part, however, taking a place at the piano, he suddenly saw in front of him not Bach’s score, but other notes, just similar to the score. Mendelssohn could delay the start of the concert and demand that the score of the Passion be brought to him, or he could cover the “wrong” notes and play the music from memory. However, Felix acted differently. While performing the keyboard part and conducting, he glanced at the notes from time to time and regularly turned the pages. No one would have guessed that this was just a trick on his part.

BACH'S REINCARNATION

Mendelssohn's love for Bach's music did not pass unnoticed by the public; he rediscovered for listeners the beauty of the early works of this eighteenth-century master. Revived with the light hand of Felix, the St. Matthew Passion began to be performed throughout Europe, and very soon the name of Mendelssohn became inextricably linked with the name of Bach. This close connection could not but cause all sorts of comments. Berlioz once said: “There is no God but Bach, and Mendelssohn is his prophet.”

SAUSAGES - THIS IS HAPPINESS!

Mendelssohn had to travel often and for a long time with concerts, and, like any traveler, he missed the comfort of home and familiar surroundings. On tour in England in 1846, one reception after another was held in Mendelssohn's honor. But he himself recalled with the greatest pleasure not the gala dinners, but how he accidentally stumbled upon a butcher shop where they sold real German sausages. Immediately buying a long bunch of fried sausages, the composer ate them without moving.

INTERRUPTED FUGUE

In the same England, such an incident happened to Mendelssohn. He was specially invited to the Sunday evening service at London's St. Paul's Cathedral, so that at the end he would play something on the organ. However, the delay in the service was not to the taste of the church ministers; it was in their interests to quickly expel the parishioners and lock the cathedral. Mendelssohn began to play Bach's majestic fugue. The audience, with bated breath, listened to the growing power of this music - and suddenly the polyphonic organ went numb. The attendants stopped the bellows that were pumping air into the organ pipes. And yet, two days later, Mendelssohn managed to complete the fugue, so rudely interrupted in St. Paul's Cathedral, but in another church, where the organist there invited him to perform.

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MENDELSON(Mendelssohn-Bartholdy) ( Mendelssohn-Bartholdy) Felix (1809-1847), German composer, conductor, pianist and organist. Founder of the first German conservatory (1843, Leipzig). Symphonies ("Italian", 1833; "Scottish", 1842), symphonic overture "Fingal's Cave" (1832), music for W. Shakespeare's play "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (1825), concertos for violin, piano and orchestra, "Songs without Words" (1845) for piano, oratorio.

MENDELSON(Mendelssohn-Bartholdy) ( Mendelssohn-Bartholdy) Felix (full name (Jacob Ludwig Felix) (February 3, 1809, Hamburg - November 4, 1847, Leipzig), German composer, conductor, organist, pianist.

A promising start

He came from a wealthy and enlightened Jewish family. Grandson of Moses Mendelssohn. In 1816, his family converted to the Lutheran faith, taking the second surname Bartholdi. Young Mendelssohn studied piano with the leading Berlin teacher L. Berger (1777-1839), and in theoretical subjects and composition with the head of the Berlin Singing Academy K. F. Zelter. His first works appeared in 1820. By the mid-1820s, Mendelssohn was already the author of a number of major scores - sonatas, concertos, symphonies for string orchestra, piano quartets, singspiels; in which he discovered an absolute mastery of the composer's craft, including the technique of counterpoint. Mendelssohn's creative development was influenced by family travel, communication with prominent people who visited his parents' salon, acquaintance with poetry (Mendelssohn met with him several times since 1821) and dramas in translations by A. V. Schlegel. In this atmosphere, which was conducive to the rapid development of the young composer’s talent, his first masterpieces were born: the string Octet (1825) with a ghostly-fantastic scherzo and a virtuosic final fugue, and the overture “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” (1826), in which a fairy-tale-enchanting element dominates ( Mendelssohn retained his penchant for this figurative sphere until the end of his life). Mendelssohn's gift for conducting was also formed very early. In 1829, under his direction, J. S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion was performed at the Berlin Singing Academy for the first time after many years of oblivion; this event marked the beginning of the “Bach revival” of the 19th century.

Career as a professional musician

In 1829-33, Mendelssohn, traveling around Europe, visited England and Scotland (1829), Italy (1830-31), Paris (1831), London (1832, 1833). The impressions received were reflected in the sketch of the future “Scottish Symphony”, in the “Hebrides” overture (first performance in 1832, London), “Italian Symphony” (1833, London) and some other works. In 1833-35, Mendelssohn took the position of music director in Düsseldorf, where the basis of his conducting repertoire was Handel's oratorios. His passion for this composer was reflected in Mendelssohn's biblical oratorio "Paul" (1836, Düsseldorf). In 1835, Mendelssohn settled in Leipzig, with whose name his peak achievements as a conductor and organizer of musical life are associated. Having become the head of the famous Leipzig Gewandhaus (1835-47), Mendelssohn promoted the music of Bach and Weber (with whom he had a close friendship). In 1843 he founded and headed the Leipzig Conservatory (now the Mendelssohn Academy of Music). The composer became the founder of the Leipzig school, which was distinguished by its focus on classical examples.

During the Leipzig period

During his Leipzig years, Mendelssohn composed mainly during the summer holidays. Among the most significant works of this period are the overture "Ruy Blas" (1839), the final version of the 2nd symphony ("Song of Praise", 1840), "Scottish Symphony" (1842), Violin Concerto in E minor (1844), two piano trios (1839, 1845). By order of the King of Prussia, magnificent music was written for Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream (partially based on the material from the youthful overture). Despite her success, Mendelssohn's relationship with the Berlin elite was difficult. The composer took an active part in organizing the Lower Rhine and Birmingham music festivals; in England he enjoyed special sympathy from the public and traveled there 10 times (in 1846 and 1847 he conducted performances of the oratorio “Elijah” in Birmingham and London). An early death cut short the life of one of the most respected musicians in Europe at that time. Mendelssohn died of a stroke at the age of 38, not long outliving his beloved sister Fanny (married to Henselt, 1805-1847), who was also a talented musician.

Romantic

Mendelssohn, more than other romantic composers of his generation, was guided by the ideals of the 18th century and classicism. In its best examples, his music is characterized by harmony and balance of forms, restraint of expression, elegance of melodic lines, rational and economical texture - qualities that Mendelssohn adopted from the Viennese classics. From and he inherited a commitment to fugue, organ, and the genres of cantata and oratorio. At the same time, by the mid-1820s he had developed a distinctive style, often drawing creative inspiration from literature, history, nature, and the fine arts. It is this reliance on extra-musical sources of inspiration that makes Mendelssohn above all a romantic. His early experiments in the operatic genre, marked by a strong influence, were not continued (Mendelssohn until the end of his days was looking for a suitable plot for an opera, and in the year of his death he began work on the opera “Lorelei” based on the text by E. Geibel). His penchant for musical theater was more successfully embodied in oratorios, the overture “Ruy Blas” by V., music for Sophocles’ “Antigone” (1841) and for “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. There is something autobiographical in the choice of subjects for the oratorios: “Paul” allegorically reproduces the history of Mendelssohn’s family, and “Elijah” the story of his disagreements with Berlin society. Many other vocal works by Mendelssohn are also notable, including the cantata "The First Walpurgis Night" Op. 60 (on Goethe's poems glorifying spring) and choral psalms from the Leipzig period. His secular choruses and romances are uneven in quality, but among them there are genuine pearls - first of all, the romance “On the Wings of Song” to the words of G. Heine.

Menedelson-instrumentalist

Mendelssohn began his career as a composer of instrumental music with symphonies for string orchestra, masterfully stylized in the manner of Viennese classicism. Among the five “real” symphonies of Mendelssohn, the “Italian” and “Scottish” stand out. To embody the spirit of Italy, Mendelssohn chose a compact four-part form with a minuet as the 3rd movement and a fast dance finale in the rhythm of the saltarello (Italian fast dance of folk origin). "Scottish Symphony" is larger and richer in contrasts; the program-visual principle is more clearly expressed in it. The most significant program symphonic overtures of Mendelssohn - essentially one-movement symphonic poems - are inspired by images of the sea ["Sea Silence and Happy Voyage" (after Goethe, 1828), "Hebrides" (1832), "Beautiful Melusine" (after F. Grillparzer, 1833 )]. In the best non-program instrumental opuses - such as the Octet, some quartets, piano trios, Serious Variations for piano (1841) and the famous Violin Concerto - classical formal principles are happily combined with an intimate, deeply felt tone. Mendelssohn's skill as a miniaturist was manifested in his simple and at the same time exquisite "Songs without Words"; The composer wrote this series of piano pieces - a kind of lyrical diary - from 1829 to 1845 (a total of 8 notebooks of 6 pieces each).