Mendelssohn: 7 Characteristic Pieces, Op. 7 / Fantasia, Op. 28

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Cat No: 8553541

Release Date: 12 January 1999

Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 730099454124

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: MENDELSSOHN

Description
Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809-1847):Piano Music Vol.5 Fantasia (Sonate ecossaise) in F sharpminor, Op. 28 Seven Characteristic Pieces, Op. 7 Prelude and Fugue in E minor Sonata Movement in B flat minor Capriccio in F sharp minor, Op. 5 Born in Hamburg in 1809, eldest son of thebanker Abraham Mendelssohn and grandson of the great Jewish thinker MosesMendelssohn, Felix Mendelssohn took the additional name Bartholdy on hisbaptism as a Christian. He was brought up in Berlin, where his family settledin 1812, and here he enjoyed the wide cultural opportunities that his familyoffered, through their own interests and connections. Mendelssohn's earlygifts, manifested in a number of directions, included marked musical precocity,both as a player and as a performer, at a remarkably early age.Mendelssohn's early manhood brought theopportunity to travel, as far south as Naples and as far north as the Hebrides,with Italy and Scotland both providing the inspiration for later symphonies.His career involved him in the Lower Rhine Festival in D??sseldorf and a periodas city director of music, followed, in 1835, by appointment as conductor ofthe Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig. Here he was able to continue the work hehad started in Berlin six years earlier, when he had conducted in Berlin arevival of Bach's St Matthew Passion. Leipzig was to provide adegree of satisfaction that he could not find in Berlin, where he returned atthe invitation of King Friedrich Wilhelm IV in 1841. In Leipzig once more, in1843, he established a new Conservatory, spending his final years there, untilhis death at the age of thirty-eight on 4th November 1847, six months after thedeath of his gifted and beloved sister Fanny.Mendelssohn seems to have written a firstversion of his Fantasia in F sharp minor, Opus 28, the so-called Sonateecossaise, in 1828, before his first visit to Scotland the following year.In 1830, after his return, he played the Fantasia to Goethe in Weimar,but revised the piece in 1833 when it was published with a dedication to thepianist and composer Ignaz Moscheles, who had given him and his sister somelessons in Berlin in 1824 and proved a useful friend during Mendelssohn's visitto London in 1829. In a key that the composer found stimulating, the Fantasiaopens with a series of arpeggios, followed by the Andante principaltheme. A more extended passage of cascading arpeggios is followed by the returnof the Andante theme, leading to a shorter concluding passage ofdecorative intensity, fading to a wistful close. The second movement, marked Allegrocon moto, is in the style of a gentle A major Scherzo, with a Dmajor Trio at its heart. The extended final Presto is inestablished sonata form. The repeated exposition, the first section, repletewith dramatic excitement, offers the expected two thematic elements and theseare duly developed, to return in varied form in the final recapitulation.Mendelssohn's Seven Characteristic Pieces, Opus 7, seem to have beenwritten as early
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