Scan 150
Grove's dictionary of music and musicians ed. by J. A. Fuller Maitland, 1907
25 lines. Read by computer on 5 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1Rossini, some years later, he professed himself a convert to Bach.
3Whistling's Handbuch shows that by the end of this year (1829) Felix had published his three pf. quartets; the Sonata for pf. and vn.; the Capriccio for pf. (op. 5); the Sonata for pf. solo; the 'Wedding of Camacho'; and the first two books of Songs. The dedications of these throw an interesting light on some things. The pf. quartets are inscribed respectively to Prince A. Radzivil (a friend of the family, who was present at the first performance of 'Die Beiden Pädagogen' at the Neue Promenade), Zelter, and Goethe; the violin sonata (op. 4) to Eduard Ritz, Felix's favourite violin player; and the seven Characteristic pf. pieces (op. 7) to Ludwig Berger, his pianoforte teacher. The rest have no dedications.
5The engagement of Fanny Mendelssohn to William Hensel the painter, of Berlin, took place on Jan. 22, 1829, in the middle of the excitement about the Passion; and on April 10 Felix started for England. He was now twenty. His age, the termination of his liability to military service,1 the friction just alluded to between himself and the musical world of Berlin—all things invited him to travel, and Zelter2 was not wrong in saying that it was good for him to leave home for a time. Hitherto also he had worked without fee or reward. He was now to prove that he could make his living by music.3 But more than this was involved. His visit to England was the first section of a long journey,4 planned by the care and sagacity of his father, and destined to occupy the next three years of his life. In this journey he was 'closely to examine the various countries, and to fix on one in which to live and work; to make his name and abilities known, so that where he settled he should not be received as a stranger; and lastly to employ his good fortune in life, and the liberality of his father, in preparing the ground for future efforts.'5 The journey was thus to be to him what the artistic tour of other musicians had been to them; but with the important difference, resulting from his fortunate position in life, that the establishment of his musical reputation was not the exclusive object, but that his journey was to give him a knowledge of the world, and form his character and manners. Music had not been adopted as a profession for Felix without much hesitation, and resistance on the part of some of his relations, and his father was wisely resolved that in so doing nothing should be sacrificed in the general culture and elevation of his son. The reason alleged to have been given by a young Scotch student for going to Oxford, 'To improve myself, and to make friends,' was Mendelssohn's motto, not only during his grand tour but throughout his career.
7It was their first serious parting. His father and Rebecka accompanied him to Hamburg. The boat (the Attwood) left on the Saturday evening before Easter Sunday, April 18, and it was not till noon on Tuesday, the 21st, that he reached the Custom House, London. The passage was a very bad one, the engines broke down, and Mendelssohn lay insensible for the whole of Sunday and Monday. He was welcomed on landing by Klingemann and Moscheles, and lodged at the house then numbered 103, Great Portland Street, where his landlord was Heinke, a German ironmonger.6
9It was the middle of the musical season, and on the night of his arrival Malibran made her first reappearance at the Opera, as Desdemona. His account of her, with other letters describing this period, will be found in Die Familie Mendelssohn (i. 214-294), in Devrient's Recollections, [and in Letters of Felix Mendelssohn to Ignaz and Charlotte Moscheles (1888)]. Other singers in London at that time were Sontag, Pisaroni, Mme. Stockhausen, and Donzelli; also Velluti, the castrato, a strange survival of the ancient world, whom it is difficult to think of in connection with Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy. De Bériot and Madame Dulcken were among the players. Fétis, too, was in London with the object of delivering his lectures (of which only one was given) on 'La musique à la portée de tout le monde,' in French, to English audiences. Felix was much with Mr. and Mrs. Moscheles, and there met Neukomm, with whom, in everything but his music, he sympathised warmly.
11His first appearance before an English audience was at the Philharmonic Concert (then held in the Argyll Rooms, at the upper end of Regent Street, where No. 246 now stands), on Monday evening, May 25, when he conducted his Symphony in C minor. Old John Cramer 'led him to the piano, as if he were a young lady.'7 The applause was immense, and the Scherzo (scored by him from his Octet for this occasion, in place of the original Minuet and Trio) was obstinately encored against his wish.8 How deeply he felt the warmth of his reception may be seen from his letter to the Society.9 He published the symphony with a dedication to the Philharmonic,10 and they on their part elected him an honorary member of the Society on Nov. 29, 1829. It was thus an English body which gave him his first recognition as a composer.11 The simple applause of London had
131 F.M. i. 188.
142 Zelter's Correspondence with Goethe, letter 641, March 9, 1829.
153 L. to Schleinitz, April 16, 1835.
164 'My great journey' he calls it, G. & M. pp. 100, 187.
175 L. Feb. 21, 1832.
196 The corner of Ridinghouse Street, now and since 1858 numbered 79. [The house was rebuilt in 1904; a photograph of it, taken before the rebuilding, will be found in Musical Haunts in London, by F. G. Edwards (1895), p. 42. See also the Musical Times, Dec. 1899, p. 528, and Sept. 1904, p. 581.]
207 F.M. i. 226.
218 Ibid.
229 Hogarth, p. 51. The letter is in French.
2310 The autograph of the Symphony—in the green cloth boards so familiar to those who know his MS. scores—is now in the Society's Library.
2411 See the statement to this effect in the A.M.Z. for 1836, p. 337.
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.