The German Felix Mendelsohn-Bartholdy was born in Hamburg on February 3,1809. His grandfather Moses Mendelsohn (1729-1786) was a great German philosopher. Felix's father, the banker Abraham Mendelsohn, added his brother-in-law's family name, Bartholdy. A very rich family clan made a many-sided and all-round music education possible, including studies with Ludwig Berger, an art historian and director, and Karl-Friedrich Zelter, a musician and composer.
In 1818, Mendelsohn-Bartholdy, at the age of 9, performed already as a great piano virtuoso. In 1820, he premiered his first two youth operas "Soldier's Love" and "The Two Educationalists". After meeting the great Luigi Cherubini in 1826, Mendelsohn-Bartholdy composed the overture to Shakespeare's "One Summer Night's Dream", which became his real highlight. The other compositions of this stage play have been finished 15 years later.
In 1827, the one and only opera "Camacho's Wedding came out - and flopped.
Mendelsohn-Bartholdy loved traveling. We can notice it very well while listening i.e. the "Hebrides Overture" (Scotland) or the "Italian Symphony". During that time, his "Songs without Words" came into being: Piano pieces, sometimes arranged for violine and viola, which was the ideal house music for people in the 19th century.
Chamber music compositions ("Fine Art Quartets") and two incredible piano concerts in g-minor and d-minor, the "Scottish Symphony", the "Reformation Symphony" and the dramatic tuneful violin concert in e-minor are brilliant achievements of one of the most outstanding German classical composers.
Felix Mendelsohn-Bartholdy passed away in Leipzig on November 4, 1847.
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