Scan 164
Grove's dictionary of music and musicians ed. by J. A. Fuller Maitland, 1907
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1'Ruy Blas' Overture, a veritable impromptu—was produced on April 2,1 and his String Quartet in E flat (op. 44, No. 3) on the following day.
3His domestic life during the spring of 1838 was not without anxiety. On Feb. 7 his first son was born, afterwards named Carl Wolfgang Paul, and his wife had a very dangerous illness.2 This year he conducted the Lower Festival at Cologne (June 3-6). He had induced the committee to include a cantata of Bach's,3 then an entire novelty, in the programme, which also contained a selection from Handel's 'Joshua.' A silver cup (Pokal) was presented to him at the close of the Festival.4 [The Bach novelty appears to have been a garbled version of the Himmelfahrts cantata, 'Gott fähret auf mit Jauchzen,' though Mendelssohn probably found it in that state. The double chorus—to which he refers in his letter to J. A. Novello as being alone worth the journey from London to Cologne to hear—was 'Nun ist das Heil, und die Kraft.' This information, though not so complete as could be desired, is obtained from a word-book of the festival. See Musical Times, June 1906, p. 387, for further details.]
5The summer was spent at Berlin, in the lovely garden of the Leipziger Strasse, and was his wife's first introduction to her husband's family.5 To Felix it was a time of great enjoyment and much productiveness. Even in the early part of the year he had not allowed the work of the concerts to keep him from composition. The String Quartet in E flat just mentioned, the Violoncello Sonata in B flat (op. 45), the 95th Psalm, and the Serenade and Allegro giojoso are all dated during the hard work of the first four months of 1838. The actual result of the summer was another String Quartet (in D; op. 44, No. 1), dated July 24, 1838,6 and the Andante Cantabile and Presto Agitato in B (Berlin, June 22, 1838). The intended result is a symphony in B flat which occupied him much, which he mentions more than once as complete in his head, but of which no trace on paper has yet been found.7 He alludes to it in a letter to the Philharmonic Society (Jan. 19, 1839)—answering their request for a symphony—as 'begun last year,' though it is doubtful if his occupations will allow him to finish it in time for the 1839 season. So near were we to the possession of an additional companion to the Italian and Scotch symphonies! The Violin concerto was also begun in this holiday,8 and he speaks of a Psalm 9 (probably the noble one for eight voices, 'When Israel out of Egypt came'), a Sonata for pianoforte and violin (in F, dated 'Berlin, June 13, 1838,' still in MS.), and other things. He was now, too, in the midst of the tiresome correspondence with J. R. Planché,10 on the subject of the opera which that gentleman had agreed to write, but which, like Mendelssohn's other negotiations on the subject of operas, came to nothing; and there is the usual large number of long and carefully written letters. He returned to Leipzig in September, but was again attacked with measles,11 on the eve of a performance of 'St. Paul,' on Sept. 15. The attack was sufficient to prevent his conducting the first of the Gewandhaus Concerts (Sept. 30), at which David was his substitute. On Oct. 7 he was again at his post.12 The star of this series was Mrs. Alfred Shaw, whose singing had pleased him very much when last in England. Its one remarkable novelty was Schubert's great Symphony in O, which had been brought from Vienna by Schumann, and was first played in MS. on March 21, 1839, at the last concert of the series. [He was very anxious that the Philharmonic Society (London) should perform Schubert's symphony, and, indeed, he sent the parts to London, but without any practical result. See his letters to the Secretary of the Society, W. Watts, in the concert programme-book of Feb. 5, 1880.] During the autumn of 1839 he received from Erard the grand piano which became so well known to his friends and pupils, and the prospect of which he celebrates in a remarkable letter now in the possession of that firm.
7'Elijah' is now fairly under way. After discussing with his friends Bauer and Schubring the subject of St. Peter,13 in terms which show how completely the requirements of an oratorio book were within his grasp, and another subject not very clearly indicated, but apparently approaching that which he afterwards began to treat as Christus14—he was led to the contemplation of that most picturesque and startling of the prophets of the Old Testament, who, strange to say, does not appear to have been previously treated by any known composer. Hiller15 tells us that the subject was suggested by the passage16 (1 Kings xix. 11), 'Behold, the Lord passed by.' We may accept the fact more certainly than the date (1840) at which Hiller places it. Such a thing could not but fix itself in the memory, though the date might easily be confused. We have already seen that he was at work on the subject in the summer of 1837, and the correspondence printed in the History of 'Elijah' shows that much consultation had already taken place upon it between Mendelssohn and himself, and also with Klingemann, and that considerable progress had been made in the construction of the book of the oratorio. Mendelssohn had
91 Conceived and composed in two days for Mme. Botgorscheck's concert. See L. April 2, 1838.
102 H. p. 115.
113 L. to J. A. Novello, Leipzig, April 7, 1838, in G. & M. p. 192.
124 A.M.Z. 1838, p. 439.
135 F. M. ii. 57, 63.
146 Autograph in possession of the Sterndale-Bennetts.
157 L. to F. David, July 30, 1838; to Fanny, June 18, 1839; H. p. 126.
168 L. to F. David, July 30, 1838.
179 H. p. 126.
1810 For the whole of this see J. R. Planché's Recollections and Reflections, 1872, vol. i. p. 279, et seq. Mr. Planché's caustic deductions may well be pardoned him even by those who most clearly see their want of force.
1911 A.M.Z. 1838, p. 642.
2012 Ibid. p. 696.
2113 L. to Schubring, July 14, 1837.
2214 L. to Pastor Bauer, Jan. 12, 1835.
2315 H. p. 171.
2416 He liked a central point for his work. In 'St. Peter' it would have been the Gift of Tongues; see L. to Schubring, July 14, 1837.
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