Ex. 11.6 : Mendelssohn, Festgesang (1838)
Returning to Berlin on June 10, Felix resumed private life with his family; but because everything in Berlin hung together “with the sand,” he did not regret his decision to pursue his career elsewhere. 85 For several months the family circle was weakened by the departure of Hensel, who traveled to London to attend a fairy-tale event. On June 28 the young Queen Victoria, attired in medieval dress, arrived in a golden carriage, supported by trident-bearing Tritons, for her coronation at Westminster Abbey. Hensel managed to have an audience with Victoria, who purchased his painting of Miriam’s song of praise after the crossing of the Red Sea (among those rejoicing in the painting were likenesses of Fanny, Rebecka, and Paul’s wife, Albertine). 86 Hensel received commissions from the Duchess of Sutherland and Lord Egerton but cut short his sojourn when news came of a measles epidemic in Berlin.
Now more a spectator of Berlin musical life than active participant, Felix avoided the public light to take up several new compositions, including preliminary ideas for a symphony in B ♭ major. 87 The opening of a violin concerto in E minor began to haunt him, 88 and on June 15 he finished a draft of the Violin Sonata in F major, intended for Ferdinand David, but rejected as a “wretched sonata.” In three movements, it included a Lied-ohne-Worte- styled slow movement and a perpetuum-mobile finale. Dissatisfied with the expansive first movement, Felix began to revise it in 1839 but then abandoned the effort. (It remained virtually unknown until 1953, when Yehudi Menuhin published the score in an edition that conflated the two versions of the first movement.) For Breitkopf & Härtel, Felix dispatched a piano work, the Andante cantabile e Presto agitato , that appeared late in 1838 for an 1839 album. Recalling the Rondo capriccioso and Serenade und Allegro giojoso , he reapplied the well-worn scheme of the two-movement concert piece, with a nocturne-like introduction linked to a lively rondo finale. The figuration betrays some concessions to keyboard fashions—thickened textures in the Andante and rapidly repeated notes in the Presto , an effect facilitated by the double-escapement action of Felix’s Erard piano. But the prevalent foursquare, symmetrical phrasing gives the work a certain predictability that vitiates the dramatic contrast between the two movements.
Robert Schumann detected in Felix’s music of the later 1830s a propensity toward the Mozartean. Of the Cello Sonata No. 1, Op. 45, conceived during the summer of 1838 but not finished until October, Schumann observed: “A smile hovers round his mouth, but it is that of delight in his art, of quiet self-sufficiency in an intimate circle….” 89 Indeed, a classical tranquility envelops this music, which avoids dramatic contrasts within and between movements, and favors balance and structural stability. Thus, Felix reworks the opening unison figure of the first movement, with its characteristic dissonant leap (A–E ♭ ), into the principal theme of the rondo finale, where the leap is smoothed out by stepwise motion ( ex. 11.7 ). In the middle movement, he minimizes contrast between the scherzando -like A section in G minor and Lied-like B section in G major by recalling the characteristic dotted figure of A in the accompaniment of B. “Especially fitting for the most refined family circles,” was Schumann’s judgment of this composition, written for Felix’s brother, as if a celebration of fraternal harmony.
The major new work of the summer was the String Quartet in D major, Op. 44 No. 1. Its completion on July 24 facilitated the release of all three in 1839 with a dedication to the crown prince of Sweden. Op. 44 displays in abundance the new classicizing tendencies. The joyful outer movements of No. 1, with thrusting, rising themes in the first violin, recall something of the Octet, though the music now seems comparatively restrained and well mannered. Whereas the Octet begins by charting a melody rising irrepressibly some three octaves from a tremolo accompaniment, the opening theme of the Quartet, spanning only a tenth, unfolds in three symmetrical phrases for the violin placed securely above the tremolos. The phrases fall tidily into four-bar units, and little disturbs the equipoise of the movement. Probably not coincidentally, the second movement is a minuet (the only one among Felix’s mature string quartets), and here the classical attributes of grace and clarity achieve an even greater prominence. Thus, the first part of the minuet divides, in a question-and-answer fashion, into two mirroring eight-bar periods on the tonic and dominant, of which the second is nearly an exact transposition of the first. The songlike Andante contains occasional hints of Felix’s scherzando style, as in its trills and leggiero writing, but the capricious, vaguely sinister element of his earlier scherzi is absent; Puck has matured, as it were, into a respectable, complacent Bürger .
Ex. 11.7a: Mendelssohn, Cello Sonata No. 1 in B ♭ major, Op. 45 (1838)
Ex. 11.7b: Mendelssohn, Cello Sonata No. 1 in B ♭ major, Op. 45 (1838), Finale
The beginning of the second quartet, in E minor, complements that of the first. Again, the violin projects a rising, arpeggiated theme, but accompanying it are syncopated chords, and the mood, subdued and elegiac, anticipates that of the Violin Concerto Op. 64, also in E minor. With a burst of repeated, staccato notes the second movement ushers in a frolicsome, delicate scherzo in E major, brimming with delightful effects: the opening eight-bar period, for example, divides not into predictable groups of four but three groups of three, three, and two bars, injecting a playful asymmetry into the music ( ex. 11.8 ). The more serious Andante in G offers another extension of the Lied-ohne-Worte style into the domain of chamber music. The weakest of the four movements is the finale, the perpetuum-mobile Presto that runs on too long, despite its contrast between the agitated first and lilting second themes.
The bustling finale of the third quartet, in E ♭ major, also suffers from undue length, but offsetting this shortcoming is the meticulous workmanship of the first three movements. The quartet begins with an upbeat figure, repeated through a process of concision to achieve a motivic intensity reminiscent of Haydn. The inner movements again pair a scherzo and Lied ohne Worte . The infectious scherzo in C minor is a delightful masterpiece that unfolds as a complex rondo built upon three themes ( ex. 11.9 ). The first asserts a stubbornly repeated note against rapid staccato work in the accompaniment. The sotto voce second theme also employs repeated pitches, now articulated by rests that inject hiccupping gaps into the coursing music. The third enters in fugal and canonic style, though its contrapuntal elaboration evaporates into the whirling, delicate textures of sound. When the third subject later reappears, Felix adds a fresh countersubject, a descending chromatic tetrachord, and playfully invokes a traditional, Baroque fugal subject. This late addition prepares the poignantly chromatic flavor of the slow movement, which begins by progressing from the tonic major to minor subdominant, and establishing a strident cross relation between the cello and first violin.
Ex. 11.8 : Mendelssohn, String Quartet in E minor, Op. 44 No. 2 (1837), Scherzo
Ex. 11.9 : Mendelssohn, String Quartet in E ♭ major, Op. 44 No. 3 (1838), Assai leggiero e vivace
Often the Op. 44 quartets are thought to evince a stylistic retrenchment, as if in 1837 and 1838 Felix stepped back from the “progressive” threshold of the Octet and Opp. 12 and 13 to revalidate a reactionary classical aesthetic. In 1963 Eric Werner went so far as to seek a causal effect in Felix’s domestic happiness: his “wish to please and impress Cécile weakened his artistic integrity.” 90 Somehow her calming, moderating influence cured Felix of his compositional irascibility and led him to produce undemanding “armchair” music. But the reasons for Felix’s compositional retrenchment are much more complex. That he overlaid his music of the late 1830s with a classical veneer was probably a deliberate choice. The surface clarity and balance of Op. 44 may indeed reflect his stable domestic life and the adoption of a conservative compositional outlook—understandable enough for a new husband and father. But the cultural temper of the Restaurationszeit , which in German realms promoted political and domestic stability, surely played a role as well. Then there was the increasingly demanding regimen of duties at the Gewandhaus, which
more and more required Felix to confine composition to the summer months and thus rely upon well-tested compositional models. Finally, notwithstanding his assertion that unless he was “made” for popularity he could not strive toward it, 91 at some level Felix may have been responding to Rossini’s suggestion that he adopt a more accessible style. But Felix’s minimizing of romantic Angst and his elevation of the enjoyable in the quartets does not mean per se a decline in quality. The inner movements of the third quartet, for example, offer anything but complacent music and can stand with Felix’s best work.
V
In August 1838 the measles epidemic abruptly interrupted the Berlin holiday. When Felix Dirichlet contracted the disease, Felix and Cécile returned to Leipzig in an attempt to safeguard Carl’s health. But after their arrival on August 20, Cécile and Felix fell ill with the measles, so that in September David had to substitute for Felix in a performance of Paulus and the first subscription concert. Felix took up the new season with the second concert (October 7) and conducted five more before tragedy struck his family. On November 17, Rebecka’s son Felix died of complications from the measles, and Felix hastened to Berlin to comfort her. He found his sister still suffering from the disease and so delirious that she had to be restrained in bed. 92 Hensel endeavored to console her with some idealized drawings of the lifeless child.
At the Gewandhaus, the closing months of 1838 featured several virtuosi, including the contralto Mary Shaw, engaged for several appearances during the 1838–1839 season, and soprano Clara Novello, who, after her “farewell” concert in January offered an Extra-Konzert on October 23. With Mary Shaw Felix introduced on November 15 a new arrangement of a familiar Scottish folksong, “O dinna ask me” ( ex. 11.10 ). Its successful reception convinced the publisher Friedrich Kistner to request more arrangements. Felix obliged and produced five more in December; they appeared in February 1839 as the Sechs schottische National-Lieder , with Felix’s editorship suppressed. 93
Ex. 11.10 : Mendelssohn (arranger), “O dinna ask me” (1839)
Among the visiting pianists was Clara Wieck, recently returned from Vienna, where she had acquired the title of Königliche-Kaiserliche Kammervirtuosin . Clara appeared in a benefit concert on September 8 and with Felix on the ninth subscription concert (December 6). Her repertoire included some of Liszt’s modish piano transcriptions of Schubert Lieder, which prompted a revealing comment from Fanny, who viewed the wordless songs as the inversion of a game she had played with Felix years before—contriving texts to fit his piano Lieder. Now the “jokes that we, as mere children, contrived to pass the time,” she mused, were “adopted by the great talents and used as fodder for the public.” 94 Two other virtuoso pianists captivated Leipzig audiences in December. Sigismond Thalberg entranced Felix with a fantasy on Rossini’s opera Donna del lago (The Lady of the Lake ), crammed with three-hand effects and astounding technical difficulties. While Thalberg was in Leipzig, an unknown Czech pianist, Alexander Dreyschock (1818–1869), managed to secure his own solo concert at the Gewandhaus, where he executed a stentorian rendition of Chopin’s Revolutionary Etude, with the left-hand part in or doubled by tempestuous octaves. 95
If the virtuoso wars entertained Felix, they did not convince him to alter his own artistic agenda. Instead of appearing as a soloist, he pondered an invitation to direct the next Lower Rhine Festival in Düsseldorf, and conducted two weighty symphonies of Louis Spohr, the Fifth and Fourth, on October 25 and December 20. The Fourth, titled The Consecration of Sound (Die Weihe der Töne ), came with a program, for distribution to the audience, about the nature of musical sound, ranging from birdsong to dance, military, and funeral music. 96 During the closing months of 1838 Felix also revisited the gestating libretto for Elijah . When Klingemann faltered in developing a suitable text, the composer turned again to Schubring, who set to work in October. But Schubring expressed misgivings about parts of Paulus and urged Felix to elevate the devotional character of his next oratorio. Felix, however, announced his preference for a dramatic treatment of the Old Testament prophet, and the collaboration fell apart early in 1839, not to be revived until 1844.
VI
“We are living a pleasant life” (Wir leben ein angenehmes Leben ), Felix announced to Rebecka on her birthday in 1839. 97 His letters to Berlin bespeak a domestic coziness—counting Carl’s teeth, receiving installments of Oliver Twist (regrettably, we do not have Felix’s reaction to Dickens’ stark novel of social protest), and admiring an alabaster bust of Shakespeare sent by Fanny for his birthday. The delivery of a new Erard grand early in the new year stimulated Felix’s return to performance, and at the Gewandhaus, he offered the “Moonlight” Sonata on Mary Shaw’s farewell concert (January 28), an improvisation on Beethoven’s Adelaide (February 14), Moscheles’s new Pastoral Concerto (March 14), and Felix’s Rondo brillant , Op. 29, with a new improvised introduction (April 4). Other highlights of the season included appearances by Sterndale Bennett, who premiered two of his own works—another Mendelssohnian overture, The Wood-nymphs , and the Piano Concerto No. 4 in F minor; following Felix’s suggestion for its slow movement, Bennett substituted a barcarolle, destined to become one of his most popular compositions. The signal event came on March 21, when Felix directed the premiere of a hitherto unknown symphony in C major, the “Great” of Schubert.
The credit for this rediscovery, the prime mover in the nineteenth-century Schubert revival, is usually assigned to Robert Schumann, who had moved to Vienna in 1838 with the aim of transferring the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik and settling there with Clara. 98 But Metternich’s censors balked at approving the journal, and on New Year’s Day 1839 Robert took up another pursuit, the music of Schubert. Visiting the deceased composer’s brother Ferdinand, Robert examined several unpublished symphonies from the Nachlass . At the end of the month Ferdinand dispatched the two C-major symphonies (Nos. 6 and 9, D589 and 944) to Breitkopf & Härtel and a letter to Felix, who examined the scores. Though the score for No. 9 had its gatherings out of order, forcing the busy Felix to spend time deciphering the confused music, he elected to have parts made of the “Great,” so that he could perform the work on the final concert of the season. Largely on its success Breitkopf & Härtel decided to engrave the score, and Felix made efforts to have the work performed by the Philharmonic Society in London. Accounts of the Leipzig premiere make clear that Felix performed the symphony without cuts, so that it lasted nearly an hour, later inspiring Robert to wax rapturously about its “heavenly length,” like a Jean Paul novel in four volumes. Felix thus took the decision to resuscitate the “Great,” and effectively transformed Schubert from a respected “ballad” composer to a symphonist of stature. 99 There were other ramifications of the revival: the Viennese publisher Anton Diabelli brought out Schubert’s Piano Sonata in A minor D784 with a dedication to Felix, who around this time began work on a Piano Sonata in G major, subsequently abandoned, that betrays clear signs of Schubertian influence. 100
The early months of 1839 found Felix preoccupied with several works. For Simrock he revised the Harmoniemusik Overture from 1824, for release in piano-duet and full wind-orchestra arrangements as Op. 24. In February he dispatched two modest hymn settings of English psalms (Nos. 5 and 31), commissioned by Coventry & Hollier; the texts, “Lord, hear the voice of my complaint” and “Defend me, Lord, from shame” were derived from the seventeenth-century New Version of the Psalms of David , assembled by Nicholas Brady and Nahum Tate, librettist of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas . 101 But a setting for soloists, chorus, and orchestra of Psalm 95 required considerably greater effort. At a charity concert on February 21 Felix premiered the first version of the work in six movements, completed the previous year. A reviewer found the composition displayed a “pure, inward piety” and praised the composer for his perceptive grasp of the text. 102 Almost at once Felix began to revise the work. In April he drafted a new setting of the majestic fifth verse (“For His is the sea”), 103 and assigned the German rights to Friedrich Ki
stner. But then he succumbed to nagging self-criticism, and the work began to unravel, like Penelope’s web. 104 A fundamental issue seems to have been how to impose musical unity upon a psalm text divided into two disparate parts, a call to worship and praise God, and an admonition not to disregard God’s law. Not until 1841 would Felix discover a satisfactory solution.
Mendelssohn: A Life in Music Page 51