56 . NZfM 19 (1843), 68.
57 . Andreas Moser, Joseph Joachim: Ein Lebensbild , Berlin, 1908, I, 45, 54.
58 . Dorn, “Recollections,” 404. The melodrama was Der Zauberer und das Ungetüm (The Sorcerer and the Monster ), performed in Berlin on April 20, 1827.
59 . Von Küstner to Felix, September 10, 1843, MDM GB XVIII, 16.
60 . AmZ 45 (1843), 741–42.
61 . Felix to the Rat der Stadt Leipzig , October 1, 1843, in LA , 108–12.
62 . Moser, Joachim , I, 56.
63 . Gade, 42.
64 . Fanny to Rebecka, October 18, 1843, MF II, 215–19; Hiller, Letters , 212–14, and E. Devrient, Recollections , 246–50.
65 . Ibid., 246–47.
66 . Hiller, Letters , 214.
67 . Fanny to Rebecka, October 18, 1843, MF II, 217.
68 . On Felix’s differing treatments of the motto chords in the overture, see Todd: 1993, 87.
69 . NZfM 20 (1844), 6–7.
70 . E. Devrient, 247.
71 . MA Ms. 86; an edition by Suzanne Summerville (Fairbanks, Alas., 1994) is available.
72 . MA Ms. 48; an edition by L. G. Serbescu and B. Heller is available (Kassel, 1991); see also Nubbemeyer: 1999, 108–20.
73 . Reinecke, 3.
74 . AmZ 46 (1844), 76.
75 . Felix to Rebecka, December 23, 1843, MF II, 238.
76 . Felix to Klingemann, November 20, 1843, Klingemann, 283.
77 . Tagebücher von K. A. Varnhagen von Ense , Leipzig, 1861, rep. Bern, 1972, II, 238.
78 . Dr. F. E. Ehrenberg to Felix, October 17, 1843, MDM GB XVIII, 146.
79 . They have been edited by Pietro Zappalà (Stuttgart, 1997).
80 . See the thorough discussion in Brodbeck: 1992.
81 . For the original version of Psalm 2, finished on December 15, 1843, see the new edition of Op. 78 by David Brodbeck (Stuttgart, 1998), 36–58.
82 . Kraków, MN 38/2, 235–36.
83 . Fanny to Rebecka, December 26, 1843, MF II, 244.
84 . AmZ 46 (1844), 79; see also Allgemeine Wiener Musikzeitung 4 (1844), No. 1, 4.
85 . Felix to David, December 19, 1843, LA , 189.
86 . Fanny to Rebecka, January 9, 1844, MF II, 249.
87 . Felix to Paul, February 8, 1844, NYPL No. 655; Fanny to Rebecka, December 26, 1843, MF II, 243. The whole issue is carefully reviewed in Dinglinger: 1982, 99–111.
88 . Krummacher: 1992, 100ff.
89 . Wilfrid Mellers, Romanticism and the Twentieth Century , London, 1957, 31.
90 . Kraków, MN 39, 43–45.
91 . Werner: 1963, 415–16, and Werner: 1984, 54–57.
92 . MDM GB XVIII, 185; XIX 15, 48, 192, and 223.
93 . Kraków, MN 39, 43–45.
94 . Felix to von Redern, Scheumann: 1908/09, 261.
95 . Felix to Droysen, January 19, 1844, Wehner, 86.
96 . Richard Wagner, On Conducting , 22. When, in 1855, Wagner directed the London Philharmonic, he encountered the Mendelssohnian “style” of performance: “The music gushed forth like water from a fountain; there was no arresting it, and every Allegro ended as an undeniable Presto.” Some corroborating evidence may be found in the memoirs of Robert Schumann, who described the tempo Felix took in the first movement of Beethoven’s Ninth as inconceivably fast (unbegreiflich rasch ; Schumann: 1980, 108). Nevertheless, as Clive Brown has argued, the issue probably had to do with Wagner’s growing preference for flexible tempi vs. Felix’s tendency to keep strict time. Brown: 1999, 391–94.
97 . Wagner to Minna Wagner and Felix, January 8 and 10, 1844, in Spencer and Millington, 116–17.
98 . Richard Wagner, My Life , trans. A. Gray, Cambridge, 1983, 265.
99 . Schumann, Tagebücher , II, 316.
100 . Felix to Breitkopf & Härtel, January 18, 1844, BadV , 138.
101 . Felix to Buxton, January 27, 1844, in Selden-Goth, 331, and Schumann, Tagebücher , II, 316.
102 . A presentation autograph of Nos. 3 and 2 is in the Rudolf Kallir collection in New York.
103 . See Todd: 2002.
104 . SBB N. Mus. Ms. 241; a facs. of the title page is in Klein: 1997, 220.
105 . Lewald, Meine Lebensgeschichte , Berlin, 1861, 147; 1989: III, 106.
106 . MF II, 261.
107 . Hiller, Letters , 216. See also F. Hensel, 234–35 (entry of April 16, 1844).
108 . AmZ 46 (1844), 310.
109 . Fanny to Rebecka, March 18, 1844, MF II, 260.
110 . Felix to Rebecka, May 18, 1844, ibid., II, 278.
111 . Felix to Paul, May 21, 1844, NYPL No. 661.
112 . Bunsen to Felix, April 28, 1844, P. Mendelssohn Bartholdy: 1868, 319.
113 . Cited in MT 1 (1844), 2 (June 1, 1844).
114 . See The Musical Examiner , August 10, 1844, 721–22, 725–27, rep. in Nichols, 146–53.
115 . Felix to the Secretary of the Philharmonic Society, W. Watts, April 23, 1839, cited in “Schubert’s Music in England,” MT 38 (1897), 83.
116 . Ibid., 82.
117 . Moser, Joachim , I, 62.
118 . Felix did attend at least one evening party of Babbage, who gave him a pamphlet with an “account of his calculating machine” for Felix to deliver to Gustav Dirichlet (Felix to Rebecka, July 22, 1844, MF II, 293).
119 . Rockstro, 96–97. According to a review in The Spectator 17 (1844), 618–19 (rep. in Brown: 2003, 219), the cadenza to the first movement combined Bach and Beethoven, while the second, “in which the phrases to be worked were not obvious, fixed attention by its extraordinary ingenuity and science.”
120 . Felix to Paul, June 11, 1844, NYPL No. 664.
121 . Felix to Paul, P. Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Letters , 1868, 329.
122 . Ella, Musical Sketches Abroad and at Home , London, 1878, 251–52.
123 . Horlsey, “Reminiscences of Mendelssohn by His English Pupil,” in MahW , 243–44.
124 . F. G. Edwards: 1895, 18–19. See also the review in The Spectator 17 (1844), 547, rep. in Brown: 2003, 227–28.
125 . Moser, I, 115.
126 . Ibid., I, 66 (June 14, 1844).
127 . MDM GB XIX, 321; Henry Davison, 56–57.
128 . J. R. Sterndale Bennett, 162.
129 . MDM g. 9, fol. 14.
130 . Grove, Dictionary of Music , rep. of 3rd ed., London, 1927, III: 418.
131 . Ed. by Robin Langley (London, 1982).
132 . Mrs. Grote to Felix, June 22, 1844, MDM GB XIX, 317.
133 . On their relationship see Alexander: 1975, 95ff.
134 . David B. Levy: 1985.
135 . Flowers to Felix, May 11, 1844, and Felix to Flowers, May 16, 1844, MDM GB XIX, 252 and 256.
136 . Boyman to Felix, June 17, 1844, ibid., 311.
137 . Graves to Felix, June 8, 1844, and Felix to Graves, June 27, 1844, MDM GB XIX, 292 and 325; Felix to Paul, July 19, 1844, P. Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Letters , 1868, 330.
138 . Macfarren to Felix, April 5, 1844, MDM GB XIX, 211.
139 . Felix to Moscheles, March 7, 1845, F. Moscheles: 1888, 252. The letters to the Handel Society are in GM , 169–85.
140 . Israel in Egypt, an Oratorio, Composed in the Year 1738 ; by George Frederic Handel , London, 1845–1846, Preface, vi. Despite Felix’s insistence on the indispensability of the organ part, he laid out the chord progressions in the recitatives to accommodate an alternative performance in four-part harmony by two cellos, a practice he had observed in his performance of the St. Matthew Passion in Leipzig in 1841.
141 . H. C. Wolff: 1959, 182.
142 . Chrysander: 1867, 249–67.
143 . SBB MN 18, 5; see Jost: 1988, 127ff.
144 . Kraków, BJ MN 39, 6; see Todd: 1992b, 362ff.
145 . By July 1844 the Herbstlied had replaced the duet Sonntagsmorgen (Uhland), which eventually appeared as the posthumous Op. 77 No. 1. See Felix’s letter to Kistner, July 18, 1844, in BadV , 328.
146 . Fanny to Felix, September 7, 1838, Citron: 1987, 261.
147 . Felix to Kli
ngemann, July 17, 1844, Klingemann, 295.
148 . Felix to Paul, July 21, 1844, NYPL No. 667.
149 . Felix to Breitkopf & Härtel, December 17, 1844, BadV , 147.
150 . See Großmann-Vendrey: 1969, 195, 205–06, and Crum: 1983, 32–33.
151 . Felix to Coventry, August 29, 1844, MDM d. 55.
152 . On the publication history, see Elvers: 1960, 147–49.
153 . All available in Wm. A. Little’s edition of the Complete Organ Works , London, 1987, II, 2–26.
154 . Felix to David, September 2, 1844, LA 198; Fanny to Felix, June 22, 1846, Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn, 389.
155 . A facs. of the autograph, and of Felix’s dedicatory letter to the king, of August 15, 1844, has been published with a postscript by Thomas Schmidt-Beste (Stuttgart, 1997).
156 . Mendelssohn, Complete Organ Works , II, 27–50.
157 . Charles Coventry to Felix, September 19, 1844, MDM GB XX, 90.
158 . Felix to David, July 30, 1838, and July 24, 1839, LA , 143 and 149.
159 . Felix to Breitkopf & Härtel, March 5, 1844, BadV , 140.
160 . MDM b. 5, fols. 88–100; see Todd: 1982, 80–101.
161 . See Worbs: 1959; Gerlach: 1971 and 1974; and Todd: 1979, 384–93.
162 . Kraków, BJ MN , no number; for a facs., see L. A. Bianchi and F. Sciannameo, eds., Mendelssohn’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in E minor, Op. 64 , N. Y., 1991.
163 . Kraków, MN 39, 99–232; see Greive.
164 . Donald Francis Tovey, Essays in Musical Analysis , London, 1981, II, 157.
165 . MDM d. 11, f. 13.
166 . MDM f. 7.
167 . Fanny to Cécile, November 19, 1844, MF II, 301; Felix to E. Devrient, October 25, 1844, E. Devrient, Recollections , 255; Felix to Klingemann, November 5, 1844, Klingemann, 299.
168 . SBB, Musikabteilung, 55 MS 42, November 14, 1844; see Klein: 2001b. Felix completed four, three of which reappear as movements in the Organ Sonatas Op. 65.
169 . Now lost. A copy possibly made by Ferdinand Schimm in 1844 and a later copy made by Hensel in 1847 survive in the Musik Bibliothek, Leipzig, and Stadtgeschichtliches Museum, Düsseldorf. See Lowenthal-Hensel: 1997, 19–20 and Illustration 3. Of the portrait, Sir George Grove commented, “This, though clever as a picture, can hardly convey the man. The hand is perhaps the most remarkable thing in it, and must be a portrait.” Grove: 1890, II, 295.
170 . Holland and Rockstro, 119–20.
171 . Felix to Griepenkerl, November 18, 1844, GM , 197.
172 . Ward Jones: 1985; see also Elvers and Ward Jones, 85.
173 . The two were published in 1849 as Op. 75 Nos. 1 and 4.
174 . For a facsimile of the Ms., dated October 18, 1844, see Fanny Hensel, “Traum,” ed. H.-G. Klein, Wiesbaden, 1997.
Chapter 15
1 . Jenny Lind to H. M. Munthe, January 12, 1846, Holland and Rockstro, 177.
2 . E. Devrient, Recollections , 256.
3 . C. G. Carus, Lebenserinnerungen und Denkwürdigkeiten , Leipzig, 1866, 192–93.
4 . Von Minckwitz to Felix, February 1, 1845, GB XXI, 51.
5 . Felix to Paul, December 18, 1844, NYPL No. 672.
6 . MDM b. 2.
7 . Felix to Rebecka and Fanny, January 29, 1844, MF II, 312.
8 . U. C. Hill to Felix, November 22, 1844, MDM GB XX, No. 288.
9 . Felix to U. C. Hill, January 30, 1845, in Wulfhorst, 9; Felix to Paul, January 1, 1845, NYPL No. 675.
10 . Kraków, BJ, MN 40, 15–16.
11 . See Edwards: 1906, 95–100.
12 . The complete list is reproduced in “Church and Organ Music,” MT 47 (1906), 106–07.
13 . Felix to Coventry, May 1, 1845, MDM c. 18.
14 . Felix to Breitkopf & Härtel, April 10, 1845, BadV , 156–59.
15 . Ed. by Wm. A. Little, Leipzig, 1977.
16 . First identified in Hathaway, 38.
17 . Robert C. Mann, 645.
18 . See further Großmann-Vendrey: 1974, 191.
19 . Kraków, BJ MN 40, 49; Berlin, SBB, N. Mus. Ms. 1 (December 18, 1846); for an edition, see Rudolf Elvers’s edition of the Lieder ohne Worte , Munich, 1981, 150–51.
20 . Schlemmer’s copy is in MDM c. 47; Klingemann’s, in SBB, N Mus. Ms. 38. See also Felix’s letters of December 19, 1844, to Lessing, LC (Music 1055), and December 29, 1844, to Hübner, in Feder and Hübner, 189–90.
21 . Felix to Klingemann, April 21, 1845, in Klingemann, 308.
22 . Kraków, BJ, MN 40.
23 . Felix to Simrock, May 21, 1845, BadV , 244.
24 . Felix to Paul, June 10, 1845, NYPL No. 682; see also Felix to Paul, February 12, 1845, NYPL No. 679, and Felix to Simrock, February 12, 1845, in BadV , 243–44.
25 . Edward Sartoris to Felix, January 28, 1845, MDM, GB XXI, 41.
26 . Felix to A. F. Anacker, August 15, 1844, in Musik und Gesellschaft 22 (1972), 658.
27 . Rev. John Webb to Felix, April 10, 1845, MDM, GB XXI, 131; Felix to Joseph Moore, July 24, 1845, in Edwards: 1896, 31.
28 . Eichhorn to Felix, March 2, 1845, Felix to Eichhorn, March 6, 1845, Müller to Felix, March 5, 1845, and Felix to Müller, March 12, 1845, in P. Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Letters , 1868, 340–47.
29 . MDM b. 5, fols. 102–114; see Todd: 1980.
30 . Felix to Ferdinand Schubert, March 22, 1845, “Briefe Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy’s an Herrn Professor Ferdinand Schubert in Wien,” Wiener allgemeine Musik-Zeitung 8/4 (1848), 13–14.
31 . MDM GB XXI and XXII.
32 . Magis to Felix, April 22, 1845, GB XXI, No. 153.
33 . Wagner to Felix, April 17 and May 15, 1845, in Wagner: 1970, II, 425–28.
34 . Rockstro, 100.
35 . Taylor: 1848, I, 108.
36 . For an English edition of W. A. Lampadius’s German biography, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: Ein Denkmal für seine Freunde (Leipzig, 1848), published in 1865. Cited here are passages from the 1877 ed., 212–13.
Mendelssohn: A Life in Music Page 90
