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<br /> 011111111110H most influential cultural and political leaders. Moreover, Zelter enjoyed a close
<br /> 1111, 111411111����' r,e�%,� , ��� personal friendship with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and introduced his star
<br /> t i1 �, � ,� pupil to this renowned writer, scientist, artist and statesman. Despite a 60-year
<br /> ,, ;; �r ./„ age gap, Goethe became both a mentor and a close friend to the adolescent
<br /> �' /' � composer. Having heard Mozart as a child, Goethe suggested that Felix's talent
<br /> �r �, '� ;,r '� off'
<br /> ar � � " + �� might surpass that of his legendary predecessor.
<br /> 1111"1"11111111,11111111111111,,, ,11.1,,,1 1:11111,11117.10, 111111",' *d At age 16 Felix achieved a musical quantum jump consistent with Goethe's
<br /> 111111110.10411,1111" 010010;f' judgment. His Octet for Strings, writes Todd, "catapulted [him] into the Western
<br /> 1111 �<� , - canon of`great'composers...No work of Mozart from a comparable age matches
<br /> F ,UrUd
<br /> lotf7 111" the consummate skills of the Octet..." A letter from Fanny revealed that Felix
<br /> based the Octet's Scherzo movement on a dream-like section from Goethe's
<br /> 11,1111111 1,11 great tragic drama Faust. Todd goes further to propose that the entire work
<br /> was drawn from this play. A year later Felix produced another literary-inspired
<br /> masterpiece, a concert Overture on the subject of William Shakespeare's
<br /> Midsummer Night's Dream.
<br /> Felix Mendelssohn
<br /> by Horace Vernet Beyond music, Felix proved an impressive polymath — a voracious reader in
<br /> many fields, a fluent writer and poet in three languages, a skilled draftsman
<br /> and water colorist, and a strong swimmer and gymnast. He entered the University of Berlin in 1827 and diligently
<br /> studied philosophy, the sciences, history, and geography. He still found time to complete such compositions as his first
<br /> mature String Quartet(Op. 13), influenced by Beethoven's remarkable late works in this genre, and the concert overture
<br /> Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage, based on two of Goethe's poems. Another singular project was the revival of J.S.
<br /> Bach's largely forgotten St. Matthew Passion, kindling renewed recognition of that composer's importance. In Todd's
<br /> eyes this "was the culminating event of Felix's youth" through which "he symbolically achieved full assimilation into
<br /> Prussian culture and thus confirmed his Christian faith through Bach's ineluctable Passion." In the glow of this triumph,
<br /> his university proposed to hire its newly minted graduate as Professor of Music. However, neither Felix nor his father was
<br /> confident that Berlin would provide the best environment for his future, and he turned down the offer.
<br /> The alternative was travel. Abraham sponsored a three-year tour (1829 to 1832) in which Felix explored England,
<br /> Scotland, Bavaria, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, and France. He first sojourned in London at the invitation of that city's
<br /> Philharmonic Society, and began a lifelong mutual love affair with the British. A hiking tour to the North inspired a set
<br /> of drawings and water colors, and two major compositions. The tone poem The Hebrides, first performed in London
<br /> in 1832, represents a musical response to the dramatic landscape of Fingal's Cave off Scotland's west coast. A walk
<br /> through ancient ruins in Edinburgh sparked the conception of the "Scottish Symphony", completed some years later.
<br /> During a brief interlude at home Felix enjoyed 21s' birthday festivities and completed his second mature Symphony
<br /> (listed as No. 5), known as the Reformation, honoring the 300'" anniversary of the Lutheran faith. He later renounced
<br /> the work as "youthful juvenilia" and it was published only two decades after his death. Setting out now on continental
<br /> travels, Felix devoted two weeks to a final visit with the octogenarian Goethe in Weimar, ignited a romantic relationship
<br /> with an attractive pianist in Munich, and found Vienna, which Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven had once made Europe's
<br /> musical lodestar, a city in cultural decline. However, the main target was Italy where, in Zelter's words, "the very stones
<br /> have ears,while here [in Germany]they eat lentils and pig's ears." Mendelssohn, again,was unimpressed; in Rome, his
<br /> main base for more than half a year, he found "musical life severely lacking" (Todd), and Naples was no better. Rather,
<br /> Felix was far more taken by paintings and sculpture and by social life with a group of young German and Danish artists.
<br /> Perhaps the greatest musical influence from the Italian stay came from the Frenchman Hector Berlioz, a singularly
<br /> creative, iconoclastic composer residing in Italy as a winner of the Paris Conservatory's prestigious Prix de Rome.
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