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Mendelssohn, Felix

Mendelssohn, Felix

Felix Mendelssohn, born 3rd February 1809 was Born in Hamburg, Germany was grandson of the distinguished Jewish thinker Moses Mendelssohn, his father was a wealthy banker, the additional surname Bartholdy adopted on his conversion to Christianity. The family moved to Berlin, where Mendelssohn was brought up, able to associate with a cultured circle of family friends. He was associated with the revival of public interest in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and in the early 1830s travelled abroad for his education, spending time in Italy and also visiting England, Wales and Scotland. In 1835 he was appointed as conductor of the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig, where he also established a Conservatory, his stay there interrupted briefly by a return to Berlin. Prolific and precocious, Mendelssohn had many gifts, musically as composer, conductor and pianist. His style of composition combined something of the economy of means of the classical period with the romanticism of a later age. His work includes symphonies, concertos, oratorios, piano and chamber music. After a long period of relative denigration due to changing musical tastes in the late 19th century, his creative originality is now being recognised and re-evaluated, and he is now amongst the most popular composers of the Romantic era. Mendelssohn`s personal life was conventional. His marriage to C
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