(Fa’-ne [Men’-del-son] Hen’-zel) 1805–47 German composer Fanny was the sister of Mendelssohn. They received identical musical education, but their conservative father expected Fanny to display her undoubted musical talents only within the semi-public world of the family’s renowned Sunday concerts, which she organized and performed in as pianist and conductor. Encouraged by her husband, Hensel started to publish her ...
(Fa’-leks Men’-del-son) 1809–47 German composer Mendelssohn was born into a cultured banking family, who in 1816 converted from Judaism to Christianity, adding ‘Bartholdy’ to their name. Felix studied the piano, theory and composition, and showed early talent, writing his first piece at the age of 11. There were also important non-musical inspirations for his composing at this ...
bridge that was a departure from the harpsichord type of a single, long bridge. Both Beethoven, in his latter years, and Chopin famously played on Broadwood pianos. Mendelssohn, not surprisingly given his connections with Britain, was a Broadwood customer, as was Hummel. In 1853 three major piano manufacturers were founded: Bechstein (Berlin), Blüthner (Leipzig) and ...
The serpent is the bass member of the cornett family and, like the cornett, is made of two carved pieces of wood that are fastened together and then bound in canvas and leather. Sinuously shaped like two Ss, one leading straight into the other, it has a cup mouthpiece on the end of a brass crook, ...
violin was the major solo instrument – a position it has yet to relinquish. Outstanding examples of the concerto repertoire include Beethoven, Edward Elgar (1857–1934), Alban Berg (1885–1935), Felix Mendelssohn (1809–47), Johannes Brahms (1833–97), Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–93) and Jean Sibelius (1865–1957). The Viola The viola is the alto member of the violin family. It had become established by 1535 ...
, but his K361/ 370a requires 12 winds plus a double bass. However, there were no fixed rules; when, at the end of the classical age, Felix Mendelssohn (1809–47) wrote an overture for Harmonie, op. 24 (1824), it was for no fewer than 23 winds plus percussion. Because of their carrying power, wind ensembles are able ...
the works of Mozart, Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750), Joseph Haydn (1732–1809), Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827), Franz Schubert (1797–1828), Robert Schumann (1810–56), Frédéric François Chopin (1810–49), Franz Liszt (1811–86), Felix Mendelssohn (1809–47), Johannes Brahms (1833–97), Claude Debussy (1862–1918), Maurice Ravel (1875–1937), George Gershwin (1898–1937) and many more. Its foremost practitioners, from Liszt to Ignacy Paderewski (1860–1941) and beyond, were ...
deepest level. Origins of the Ring Wagner first became interested in the subject of the Ring in the mid-1840s, at a time when several other composers, including Felix Mendelssohn (1809–47), Robert Schumann (1810–56), Liszt and Niels Gade (1817–1890), were similarly drawn to the theme. All of them were responding to the operatic potential of the early thirteenth-century Nibelungenlied (‘Lay ...
the opera stage entirely and became a popular feature at wedding ceremonies. It was, however, largely dropped from Jewish wedding ceremonies in favour of the march by Felix Mendelssohn (1809–47) after the Nazi Party in Germany, which shared Wagner’s racist and anti-semitic views, made a national hero of him in the 1930s. Composed 1846–48 Premiered 1850, ...
1842–1900 English composer Sullivan was a Chapel Royal chorister, the first-ever Mendelssohn scholar and a student of William Sterndale Bennett. He was already a composer of distinction when, in 1867, he collaborated with the playwright W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) in Cox and Box (1866). Their Trial by Jury (1875) set the seal on a historic partnership that spawned ...
A boy chorister at King’s College, Cambridge, he began studies aged 10 at the Royal Academy of Music (RAM), where his teachers included Cipriani Potter. Close friends included Mendelssohn and Robert Schumann, who wrote enthusiastically about him in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (‘New Musical Journal’). Their influence can be found in his music, which includes four ...
1781–1861 American composer Heinrich was one of the most important figures in American musical life in the nineteenth century. Born in Bohemia to a German family, he tried unsuccessfully to set up business in America, and in 1817 he settled there to embark on a musical career, becoming the country’s first professional composer, and being dubbed by ...
1921–86 Belgian violinist Grumiaux made his debut in Brussels with the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, but his career was immediately interrupted by the war. He made his British debut in 1945. Noted for his fastidious playing, he made many recordings, including the unaccompanied Bach sonatas and the sonatas of Mozart and Beethoven. Introduction | Modern Era | Classical Personalities ...
same year he married his cousin Nina Hagerup, a soprano who gave the premieres of many of his songs. Grieg’s style combines the early German Romanticism of Schumann and Mendelssohn with nationalistic Norwegian elements, but these are filtered through his distinctive lyrical imagination. His best-known works are his Piano Concerto (1868), still a concert favourite (which Liszt sight-read perfectly ...
François-Joseph Gossec (1734–1829) and Berlioz. Recommended Recording: Joseph, soloists, NWDR Choir & Orchestra, Hamburg (cond) Wilhelm Schüchter (Gala) Introduction | Early Romantic | Classical Personalities | Felix Mendelssohn | Early Romantic | Classical ...
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