Mendelssohn

Radio Record, Volume III, Issue 43, 9 May 1930, Page 7

Mendelssohn

Life and Work [IY view of the fact that the. Wellington Symphony Orchestra’s next concert (Thursday, May 8), will devote the first half of its programme to three of the finest works of Felix Mendelssohn, the following brief appreciation of this composer will be of interest. Most of us at some time or other have come across the people who either worship Mendelssohn and all his works, or just dismiss him from their minds with such terms as "milk and watery," "superficial," and "pretty, pretty." When asked the reason for their sneering, you will invariably find that they know very little about him beyond a few of his lighter compositions for the piano; or that they are repeating what someone else has said, think-

ing it will prove their critical taste; never from any acquaintance of his works.. A man who could admire Bach and Beethoven as Mendelssohn did could not: be superficial. These two are still the greatest of musicians architecturally, and the foundations on which music is built up to the present time. Mendelssohn’s nephew says: "The profound masterpieces Bach and Beethoven had bequeathed to posterity Were a treasure’ hardly known in the years 1828 and 1829, and the fact that they. were eventually appreciated by the German nation is in a great degree due to the merit of my uncle, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy." . Writing from. London in 1829 to his family, Mendelssohn himself says, with his usual quaint humour: "On Wednesday, I shall to the dismay of all musicians, play Beethoven’s Concerto in B Flat" (the now famous "Hmperor’’). ee In another letter of the same year dated August 7, he writes: "In order to make you understand how extraordinarily the Hebrides affected me, the following came into my mind there: (viz., 21 bars of the overture to Fingal’s Cave). Now and then you find beautiful parks, but deserted, and broad. lakes, but without boats, -the roads a solitude. Fancy, in all that rich glowing sunshine, which paints the heath in a thousand divinely warm colours, and then the clouds chasing hither and thither. ; "Tt is no wonder that the Highlands have been called melancholy." Here speaks. the artist as weil as the musician, for Mendelssohn was a watercolourist of no mean order. Mendelssohn alludes to this overture under a variety of names: "The Hebrides," ' "The Solitary Island," "The Isles of Fingal," and finally "Fingal’s Cave.’ AMONG the most intimate associates of Mendelssohn was the famous violinist, Ferdinand David. In 1838 Mendelssohn began the Violin Concerto which was destined to become ; (Concluded on page 21.)

Gramophone and Radio

(Concluded from page 7.) woriti-famous. What violinist is there who has not said: "Where is: there anything to beat the Mendelssohn Concerto?’ This great work was not finally completed until 1844, and played for the first time in public in 1845 by Ferdinand David, for whom it was written. David says in a letter sent to the composer: "May the great suceess of this work induce you to think of us poor fiddlers sometimes in the future." At Mendelssohn’s funeral, David, together with Hauptmann, Moscheles, and Gade, was pall-bearer. Mendelssohn’s activity was: inexhaustible, which probably accounts for his early death at the age of 38. From 1830-1834 he had composed the Hebrioe des Overture," and "Walpurgis-nacht," together with the G minor concerto for pianoforte and orchestra, the Capriccio in B@finor, as well as a good deal of churc\ music and several songs. .And he had also begun the great Symphony in A Major, which is always known as the Italian Symphony. ‘This will be the symphony of the evening of the Wellington Symphony Orchestra concert on May 8, together with Fingal’s Cave overture, and the Violin. Concerto, with Mr. Leon de Mauny as soloist.. On the second half of the programme, among other things, the "Rakoczy" march of Berlioz is billed. As these two men were contemporaries, it might be interesting to note what Mendels"pghn’s father says of his fellow "The composer of ‘Faust’ ap ared to me agreeable and interesting, and a great deal more sensible than his music." How many of us would agree now with this pronouncement!