Psalm 43 felix mendelssohn biography

Felix Mendelssohn was a precocious musical talent. Aged twelve, he astonished the great writer Goethe with his keyboard technique. Three years later, his teacher Carl Zelter proclaimed him a ‘master’ and a member of the brotherhood of Bach, Haydn and Mozart.

Psalm 43 felix mendelssohn biography

His genius for writing exhilarating themes was already apparent. And his ability to construct dazzlingly original textures was matched by an assured mastery of musical form. When, at 17, Mendelssohn conjured subtle, shimmering orchestral sonorities in his overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, it was clear that he had found his vocation.

Unlike Mozart, he was not made to perform in the courts and theatres of Europe as a child.

Psalm 43 felix mendelssohn biography books

His parents were determined to give their children a rigorous, rounded education. Discipline and self-improvement were encouraged in the wealthy yet sober Berlin household in which Felix and his three siblings were raised. In an age of growing anti-Semitism, it seemed prudent to distance the chi