Mendelssohn: String Symphonies, Vol. 1

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Cat No: 8553161

Release Date: 12 January 1999

Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 730099416122

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: MENDELSSOHN

Description
Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809 - 1847)String Symphonies Vol. 1Symphony No.1 in C majorSymphony No.2 in D majorSymphony No.3 in E minorSymphony No.4 in C minorSymphony No.5 in B flat majorSymphony No.6 in E flat majorFelix Mendelssohn was born in Hamburg in 1809, son of the banker AbrahamMendelssohn and grandson of the great Jewish thinker Moses Mendelssohn, themodel for Lessing's Nathan the Wise, the epitome of tolerance in a generallyintolerant world. In 1812 the family moved to Berlin after the French occupationof Hamburg and it was there that Mendelssohn received his education, in music asa pupil of Carl Zelter, for whom the boy seemed a second Mozart. As a child hewas charming and precocious, profiting from the wide cultural interests of hisparents and relations, excelling as a pianist and busy with composition aftercomposition. In 1816 he was baptized a Christian, a step that his father tooksix years later, accepting what Heine described as a ticket of admission intoEuropean culture, although it was one not always regarded as valid by prejudicedcontemporaries.Abraham Mendelssohn sought the best advice when it carne to his son's choiceof career. Cherubini, director of the Paris Conservatoire, was consulted, and,while complimenting Abraham Mendelssohn on his wealth, agreed that his sonshould become a professional musician, advice given during the course of a visitto Paris in 1825, when Mendelssohn met many of the most distinguished composersand performers of the day. In Berlin his career took shape, with prolificcomposition and activity as a pianist and as a conductor. His education was toinclude a period of travel throughout Europe, a Grand Tour that took him as farnorth as Scotland and as far south as Naples, his journeys serving as sources ofinspiration.In 1835 Mendelssohn was appointed conductor of the Leipzig GewandhausOrchestra. There were, at the same time, other commitments to be fulfilled in ashort career of intense activity. In Leipzig he established as eries ofhistorical concerts, continuing the revival of earlier music on which he hadembarked under Zelter with the Berlin performance of Bach's St. MatthewPassion in 1829. At the same time he gave every encouragement tocontemporary composers, even to those for whom he felt little sympathy. At theinsistence of the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV he accepted an officialposition in Berlin, but this failed to give him the satisfaction he had found inLeipzig, where he established the Conservatory in 1843 and where he spent hisfinal years until his death at the age of thirty-eight on 4th November 1847, sixmonths after the death of his beloved sister Fanny.Mendelssohn wrote his twelve String Symphonies between 1821 and 1823.The first seven were all composed in 1821, with the eighth a year later, dated27th November 1822, and the ninth, tenth, eleventh and twelfth, completed inMarch, May, July and September 1823 respectively. A thirteenth symphony, startedin December that year, was repla
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