Felix Mendelssohn

Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (German: Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, February 3, 1809 - November 4, 1847), commonly known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor during the early Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositions include symphonies, concertos, piano music, organ music and chamber music. His best-known works include the overture and score of A Midsummer Night's Dream (including his Wedding March), the Italian Symphony, the Scottish Symphony, the oratorios St. Paul, Elijah, the overture "The Hebrides", the masterpieces of his mature period, the Violin Concerto and the String Octet. Christmas carol "Hark! The melody of "Angels Sing Loudly" was also written by him. "Song of Silence" is his most famous solo piano work. Mendelssohn's grandfather was the famous Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, but Felix initially grew up without religious affiliation. He was baptized at the age of seven and became a Reform Christian. He was regarded as a musical prodigy early on, but his parents were cautious and did not try to fully exploit his talents. His sister Fanny Mendelssohn received a similar musical education and was a talented composer and pianist in her own right; some of her early songs were published under Felix's name, and her Resurrection Rhythm Sonata was lost and mistakenly attributed to Felix until it was rediscovered in the 1970s. Mendelssohn achieved early success in Germany and revived musical interest in Bach's works with a performance of Johann Sebastian Bach's Matthew Passion in 1829. He was enthusiastically received as a composer, conductor and soloist as he traveled throughout Europe; his ten visits to England formed an important part of his adult career, during which many of his important works were premiered. His essentially conservative musical tastes set him apart from his more adventurous composer contemporaries such as Liszt Ferenc, Richard Wagner, Charles-Valentin Alcorn and Hector Berlioz. The Leipzig Music Academy he founded became a bastion of this anti-radical thinking. The originality of Mendelssohn's compositions suffered a long disparagement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries due to changes in popular musical tastes and anti-Semitism, but today his status has been re-emphasized as one of the most popular Romantic subjects.