MENDELSSOHN, FELIX

MENDELSSOHN, FELIX (Jakob Ludwig Felix; 1809–1847), composer. Born in Hamburg, Felix was the grandson of moses mendelssohn and the son of Abraham Mendelssohn, a successful banker first in Hamburg and later in Berlin, and Lea Mendelssohn, the granddaughter of daniel itzig (see mendelssohn family). His parents had their children baptized and later converted to Christianity themselves. Felix grew up in an intellectual, cultivated atmosphere. The Sunday morning concerts at his parents' Berlin home were notable occasions attended by many celebrities, and most of Mendelssohn's early music was written for these gatherings. Abraham Mendelssohn added the name Bartholdy (after a property that had belonged to his wife's brother) to the family name, stating that "A Christian Mendelssohn is an impossibility." He wished his son to go by the professional name of Felix M. Bartholdy, but he refused to comply and in 1829 conducted under the name Felix Mendelssohn. (His sister Rebecca often signed her letters Rebecca Mendelssohn Meden (the latter meaning "never" in Greek) Bartholdy.) Mendelssohn advanced rapidly as a composer and pianist. His String Octet, completed in 1825, is a major work of chamber music. Two years later the first public performance of his overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream took place, and in 1829, Mendelssohn performed what some believe to be his greatest achievement: the revival of J.S. Bach's St. Matthew Passion (at the Singakademie in Berlin), which initiated the renewed popularity of Bach's works. That same year, he made the first of many journeys to England, where his popularity grew. This trip was the first episode in a three-year grand tour that included Scotland, Italy, Switzerland, and France. Some important works of this time, reflecting impressions of his travels, are the Hebrides Overture and the Italian and Scotch symphonies. In 1833, Mendelssohn was appointed musical director of the Dusseldorf Music and Theater Society; he also supervised the city's church music and directed the subscription concerts of the Society's orchestra. Far more to his liking was his appointment as director of the Gewandhaus concerts in Leipzig in 1835. He continued to be identified with this city for the rest of his life. In 1835 he completed his oratorio St. Paul for the Lower Rhine Festival in Duesseldorf (May 1836). Then he traveled to Frankfurt to direct the Caecilien-Verein. In 1840 Mendelssohn was the most famous living composer in Central Europe. It was therefore inevitable that Frederick William IV, who wished to ensure Prussia's cultural and political supremacy, would summon him to court. In spite of the frustrations of bureaucracy, Mendelssohn did accomplish some good work there, notably the complete incidental music to A Midsummer Night's Dream. During this period he also continued writing his many Songs Without Words, the most popular piano pieces of their genre. In 1843 he returned to Leipzig and founded the conservatory which became the most renowned institution of its kind in Germany in the 19th century. Mendelssohn's last years saw many triumphs, the greatest of which was the première of Elijah in Birmingham (1846). But his strenuous existence as pianist, conductor, composer, and pedagogue had worn him out prematurely. His sister Fanny's sudden death in May 1847 was a shock to his already weakened system, and he died six months later in Leipzig.   Fanny Caecile (Zipporah) Mendelssohn (1805–1847) was unusually close to her brother Felix, and her marriage to the painter Wilhelm Hensel in 1829 did not weaken this bond. Felix relied upon her musical taste and advice, and six of her songs which were published along with his (without identification) are stylistically indistinguishable from his work. Under her own name, she published four books of piano pieces, two books of solo songs, and one book of part-songs. After her death, a few more piano pieces, some songs, and a piano trio in D major were published. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: G. Grove, Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn (Eng., 1951); S. Hensel, Mendelssohn Family 1729–1847, 2 vols. (1882); J. Horton, Chamber Music of Mendelssohn (1946); F. Mendelssohn, Letters, ed. by G. Selden-Goth (1945); J. Petitpierre, Romance of the Mendelssohns (1948); P. Radcliffe, Mendelssohn (Eng., 1954, 19672); E. Werner, Mendelssohn: A New Image of the Composer and his Age (1963); J. Werner, Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn, in: Music and Letters, 28 (Oct. 1947), 303–38; P. Young, Introduction to the Music of Mendelssohn (1949); Grove, Dict, s.v.; MGG, s.v.; Riemann-Gurlitt, s.v.; Baker, Biog Dict, s.v. (Dika Newlin)