R. Larry Todd - Mendelssohn: A Life in Music

MENDELSSOHN: A LIFE IN MUSIC

Pencil portrait of Felix by Wilhelm von Schadow, April 1834.

A Life in Music

R. Larry Todd

Oxford New York
Auckland Bangkok Buenos Aires Cape Town Chennai
Dar es Salaam Delhi Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kolkata
Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi
So Paulo Shanghai Taipei Tokyo Toronto

Copyright 2003 by Oxford University Press, Inc.

Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.
198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016
www.oup.com

Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication
Data is available

ISBN 0-19-511043-9

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper

To Karin

Prologue
Porcelain Monkeys and Family Identities

Illustrations appear following p.

Frontispiece. Wilhelm von Schadow, pencil portrait of Felix, April 1834. Staatsbibliothek zu BerlinPreuischer Kulturbesitz, Musikabteilung mit Mendelssohn-Archiv, MA BA 135 (see p. ); autograph signature, letter of June 27, 1844, Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina Moritz Oppenheim, Lavater and Lessing Visit Moses Mendelssohn , 1856. The Collection of The Judah L. Magnes Museum, San Francisco, California (see p. ) Monkey figurine, from the estate of Moses Mendelssohn. Staatsbibliothek zu BerlinPreuischer Kulturbesitz, Musikabteilung mit Mendelssohn-Archiv, MA Depos. MG Fot 5 (see p. ) Portraits of Felix and his siblings (1816), showing Fanny (age 11), Felix (7), Paul (4), and Rebecka (5). The Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, MS. Eng. c. 2269, fols. 14 (see p. ) Karl Begas, oil sketch of Felix (1821). The Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, M. Deneke Mendelssohn e. 5 (see p. ) Felixs pen-and-ink drawing of Grindelwald Glacier, August 27, 1822. The Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, M. Deneke Mendelssohn c. 5, fol. 17 (see p. ) Wilhelm Hensel, pencil drawing of Fanny Mendelssohn Bartholdy as Cecilia, patron saint of music, 1822. Staatsbibliothek zu BerlinPreuischer Kulturbesitz, Musikabteilung mit Mendelssohn-Archiv, MA BA 188, 7 (see p. ) Autograph of the Double Piano Concerto in A major (1824). Staatsbibliothek zu BerlinPreuischer Kulturbesitz, Musikabteilung mit Mendelssohn-Archiv, Mus. Ms. autogr. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy 14, p. ) Leipzigerstrasse No. 3, Berlin, as it appeared ca. 1890. Staatsbibliothek zu BerlinPreuischer Kulturbesitz, Musikabteilung mit Mendelssohn-Archiv, MA BA 400, 1 (see p. ) Felixs drawing of Durham Cathedral, July 24, 1829. The Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, M. Deneke Mendelssohn d. 2, fol. 10 (see p. ) Felixs drawing Ein Blick auf die Hebriden , showing Dunollie Castle, Oban, and a view of Mull, August 7, 1829. The Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, M. Deneke Mendelssohn d. 2, fol. 28 (see p. ) Felixs watercolor of Amalfi, November 1836 (from a sketch of May 1831). The Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, M. Deneke Mendelssohn c. 21, fol. 123 (see pp. ) Felixs honorary doctorate, University of Leipzig, March 1836. The Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, M. Deneke Mendelssohn a. 1 (Roll), No. 2 (see p. ) Philipp Veit, pencil drawing of Ccile Jeanrenaud, undated. Staatsbibliothek zu BerlinPreuischer Kulturbesitz, Musikabteilung mit Mendelssohn-Archiv, MA BA 132 (see p. ) Felixs drawing of Birmingham, September 1840. Staatsbibliothek zu BerlinPreuischer Kulturbesitz, Musikabteilung mit Mendelssohn-Archiv, Mus. Ms. autogr. S10 (Album Emily Moscheles), fol. 31 (see p. ) Felixs drawing of a domestic scene, September 23, 1844. The Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, M. Deneke Mendelssohn d. 11, fol. 13 (see p. ) Felixs final residence on the Knigstrasse (now Goldschmidtstrasse) in Leipzig, where his family moved in 1845. Internationale Mendelssohn-Stiftung e. V., Leipzig (see p. ) Final autograph page of the full score of Elijah , dated in Leipzig on August 11, 1846. Krakw, Biblioteka Jagielloska (olim Berlin, Deutsche Staatsbibliothek), Mendelssohn Nachlass 51, fol. 189 (see p. ) Wilhelm Hensel, portrait of Fanny, 1847. Staatsbibliothek zu BerlinPreuischer Kulturbesitz, Musikabteilung mit Mendelssohn-Archiv, MA BA 44 (see p. ) Felixs watercolor of Lucerne, July 2, 1847. Staatsbibliothek zu BerlinPreuischer Kulturbesitz, Musikabteilung mit Mendelssohn-Archiv, MA BA 6 (see p. ) Wilhelm Hensel, sketch of Felixs deathbed, November 6, 1847. The Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, M. Deneke Mendelssohn b. 1 (see p. )

The present volume owes much to the collective wisdom of many Mendelssohnians and friends to whom I remain greatly indebted. Several scholars, including John Daverio (news of whose tragic passing arrived during the books production), Stephen Hefling, Wm. A. Little, Nancy Reich, Jeffrey Sposato, and James Yoch, Jr., reviewed the manuscript and offered a host of helpful suggestions and refinements. At the Bodleian Library, Peter Ward Jones not only answered endless queries about the M. Deneke Mendelssohn Collection but generously read the entire manuscript and provided a thorough commentary. The volume is much improved for his counsel and fine eye for detail, and for his impeccable Mendelssohnian sleuthing and valued friendship over the years. My students in a Mendelssohn Seminar at Duke University (2002), including Lily Hirsch, Joyce Kurpiers, Jeff Palenik, and Amy Tabb, were among the first to read and to respond critically to the manuscript.

The expert staff at Oxford University Press, including my editors, Kimberly Robinson and Helen Mules, and copyeditor, Mary Sutherland, greatly facilitated the production of the volume. The determined patience and quiet persistence of Maribeth Anderson Payne, formerly of OUP, convinced me in 1996 to undertake the biography; she offered much appreciated advice along the way. To Mark Faris, of Duke University, I owe a sizable debt for designing and generating the musical examples; and to my friend, J. Samuel Hammond (Special Collections, William R. Perkins Library, Duke University) an earnest thank you for discharging in timely fashion the daunting task of producing the indices, and for detecting numerous, seemingly intractable infelicities in the prose. I am grateful as well to John Druesedow and his able, nimble staff at the Duke Music Library, including Patricia A. Canovai, for bibliographical assistance of various kinds.