opera, in one act, called Soldatenliebschaft; another, called Die
beiden Pädagogen; part of a third, called Die wandernden Comödianten;
and an immense quantity of other music of different
kinds, all showing the precocity of his genius. The original
autograph copies of these early productions are preserved in
the Berlin Library, where they form part of a collection which
fills forty-four large volumes, all written with infinite neatness,
and for the most part carefully dated—a sufficient proof that
the methodical habits which distinguished his later life were
formed in early childhood.
In 1821 Mendelssohn paid his first visit to Goethe, with whom he spent sixteen days at Weimar, in company with Zelter. From this year also dates his first acquaintance with Weber, who was then in Berlin superintending the production of Der Freischütz; and from the summer of 1822 his introduction, at Cassel, to another of the greatest of his contemporaries, Ludwig Spohr. During this year his pen was even more prolific, producing, among other works, an opera, in three acts, entitled Die beiden Neffen, oder der Onkel aus Boston, and a pianoforte concerto, which he played in public at a concert given by Frau Anna Milder.
It had long been a custom with the Mendelssohn family to give musical performances on alternate Sunday mornings in their dining-room, with a small orchestra, which Felix always conducted, even when he was not tall enough to be seen without standing upon a stool. For each of these occasions he produced some new work—playing the pianoforte pieces himself, or entrusting them to Fanny, while his sister Rebecka sang, and his brother Paul played the violoncello. In this way Die beiden Neffen was first privately performed, on the fifteenth anniversary of his birthday, the 3rd of February 1824. Between the 3rd and the 31st of March in this year he composed his fine symphony in C minor, now known as Op. 10, and soon afterwards the quartet in B minor, Op. 3, and the (posthumous) pianoforte sestet, Op. 110. In this year also began his lifelong friendship with Moscheles, who, when asked to receive him as a pupil, said, “If he wishes to take a hint from me, as to anything new to him, he can easily do so; but he stands in no need of lessons.”
In 1825 Abraham Mendelssohn took Felix to Paris, where among other musicians then resident in the French capital he met the two most popular dramatic composers of the age, Rossini and Meyerbeer, and lived on terms of intimacy with Hummel, Kalkbrenner, Rode, Baillot, Herz, and many other artists of European celebrity. On this occasion also he made his first acquaintance with Cherubini, who, though he rarely praised any one, expressed a high opinion of his talent, and recommended him to write a Kyrie, for five voices, with full orchestral accompaniments, which he himself described as “exceeding in thickness” anything he had attempted. From letters written at this period we learn that Felix’s estimate of the French school of music was far from flattering; but he formed some friendships in Paris, which were renewed on later occasions. He returned to Berlin with his father in May 1825, taking leave of his Parisian friends on the 19th of the month, and interrupting his journey at Weimar for the purpose of paying a second visit to Goethe, to whom he dedicated his quartet in B minor. On reaching home he must have worked with greater zeal than ever; for on the 10th of August in this same year he completed an opera, in two acts, called Die Hochzeit des Camacho, a work of considerable importance.
No ordinary boy could have escaped uninjured from the snares attendant upon such a life as that which Mendelssohn now lived. Notwithstanding his overwhelming passion for music, his general education had been so well cared for that he was able to hold his own, in the society of his seniors, with the grace of an accomplished man of the world. He was already recognized as a leading spirit by the artists with whom he associated, and these artists were men of acknowledged talent and position. The temptations to egoism by which he was surrounded would have rendered most clever students intolerable. But the natural amiability of his disposition, and the healthy influence of his happy home-life, counteracted all tendencies towards self-assertion.
Soon after his return from Paris, Abraham Mendelssohn removed from his mother’s residence to No. 3 Leipziger Strasse, a roomy, old-fashioned house, containing an excellent music-room, and in the grounds adjoining a “Gartenhaus” capable of accommodating several hundred persons at the Sunday performances.[1] In the autumn of the following year this “garden-house” witnessed a memorable private performance of the work by means of which the greatness of Mendelssohn’s genius was first revealed to the outer world—the overture to Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream. The finished score of this famous composition is dated “Berlin, August 6, 1826”—its author was only seventeen and a half years old. Yet in no later work does he exhibit more originality of thought, more freshness of conception, or more perfect mastery over the details of technical construction, than in this delightful inspiration. The overture was first publicly performed at Stettin, in February 1827, under the direction of the young composer, who was at once accepted as the leader of a new and highly characteristic manifestation of the spirit of progress. Henceforth we must speak of him, not as a student, but as a mature and experienced artist.
Meanwhile Camacho’s Wedding had been submitted to Spontini, with a view to its production at the opera. The libretto, founded upon an episode in the history of Don Quixote, was written by Klingemann, and Mendelssohn threw himself into the spirit of the romance with a keen perception of its peculiar humour. The work was put into rehearsal soon after the composer’s return from Stettin, produced on the 29th of April 1827, and received with great apparent enthusiasm; but a cabal was formed against it, and it never reached a second performance. The critics abused it mercilessly; yet it exhibits merits of a very high order. The solemn passage for the trombones, which heralds the first appearance of the knight of La Mancha, is conceived in a spirit of reverent appreciation of the idea of Cervantes, which would have done honour to a composer of lifelong experience.
Mendelssohn was annoyed at this injustice, and some time elapsed before his mind recovered its usual bright tone; but he continued to work diligently. Among other serious undertakings, he formed a choir for the study of the choral works of Sebastian Bach, then unknown to the public; and, in spite of Zelter’s opposition, he succeeded, in 1829, in inducing the Berlin Singakademie to give a public performance of the Passion according to St Matthew, under his direction, with a chorus of between three and four hundred voices. The scheme succeeded beyond his warmest hopes, and proved the means of restoring to the world great compositions which had never been heard since the death of Bach. But the obstructive party were offended; and at this period Mendelssohn was far from popular among the musicians of Berlin.
In April 1829 Mendelssohn paid his first visit to London. His reception was enthusiastic. He made his first appearance before an English audience at one of the Philharmonic Society’s concerts—then held in the Argyll Rooms—on the 25th of May, conducting his symphony in C minor from the pianoforte, to which he was led by John Cramer. On the 30th he played Weber’s Concertstück, from memory, a proceeding at that time extremely unusual. At a concert given by Drouet, on the 24th of June, he played Beethoven’s pianoforte concerto in E flat, which had never before been heard in the country; and the overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream was also, for the first time, presented to a London audience. On returning home from the concert, Attwood, then organist of St Paul’s Cathedral, left the score of the overture in a hackney coach, whereupon Mendelssohn wrote out another, from memory, without an error. At another concert he played, with Moscheles, his still unpublished concerto in E, for two pianofortes and
- ↑ After Mendelssohn’s death this house was sold to the Prussian government; and the “Herrenhaus” now stands on the site of the garden-house.
