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Felix Mendelssohn (1809—1847)

1. Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn was born February 3, 1809 in Hamburg, Germany. He came from a wealthy family who mixed with many of Germany’s leading artists and musicians. A frighteningly clever child prodigy, the young Felix excelled as a painter, poet, athlete, linguist, and musician.

2. In 1812, the family moved to Berlin, Germany, where his father established himself as a banker, converted to Protestantism, and changed the family name to Mendelssohn-Bartholdy.

3. Felix began taking piano lessons from his mother at age six. After the family moved to Berlin, Felix and his three siblings all studied piano. He made his public debut at the age of nine.

4. Between the ages of twelve and fourteen, Mendelssohn wrote twelve string symphonies influenced by Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart. His first published work, a Piano quartet, was written by the time he was thirteen. At fifteen, he composed his first symphony for full orchestra. The following year, Mendelssohn completed his String Octet in E-flat major, the first work which demonstrated his true genius.

5. In 1829, Mendelssohn organized and conducted an acclaimed performance of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, which had by then been quite forgotten. The success of the performance – the first since Bach’s death in 1750 – played an important role in reviving Bach’s music in Europe.

6. Mendelssohn traveled widely and made his first of ten visits to Britain in 1829. Afterwards he headed off to Italy. The buoyant and optimistic mood with which his Italian Symphony begins bears all the hallmarks of a happy man, eager to make his mark on the work and express his travels through music.

7. Mendelssohn was a lover of Britain and the people of Britain loved him and his music back in equal measure. He traveled throughout the country, with trips to Scotland sparking two of his best loved works – Scottish Symphony and Hebrides Overture.

8. Mendelssohn was an excellent watercolor painter. He also maintained an enormous correspondence which illustrates his wit. Sometimes he would draw sketches and cartoons in the text of his letters.

9. Along with composing, Mendelssohn was a highly proficient conductor, being given the position of music director at the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra in 1835 when he was just twenty-six years of age. His concert programs included many of his own works as well as pieces by his contemporaries. He was deluged by offers of music from rising composers including Richard Wagner.

10. Mendelssohn suffered from poor health in the final years of his life. A hectic final tour of England left him exhausted and ill. He died aged 38 after a series of strokes. Mendelssohn once described death as a place “where it is to be hoped there is still music, but no more sorrow or partings.” Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn died November 4, 1847.