MENDELSSOHN'S MUSIC

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21326, 29 October 1932, Page 10 (Supplement)

MENDELSSOHN'S MUSIC

REVIVAL OF INTEREST "A CHILDLIKE MIND" I There have been signs lately of a revival of interest in Mendelssohn s music, Mr, Ralph Hill* writes in the London Daily Telegraph. While the finest of Mendelssohn's orchestral works are still occasionally performed, the piano and Chamber music is very unjustly neglected. Granted that Mendelssohn turned out a quantity of glib and superficial music, but that is no reason for ignoring several gems of rare beauty ar ' inspiration'lying quite close at hand. The truth is that Mendelssohn is now paying the price for the enormous popularity he enjoyed and the exaggerated claims made for him during his lifetime. The combination of several reasons account for the fact that he was given a placo within hand-shaking distance of Bach, Handel, and Mozart; his music was easily understood by virtue of its melodiousness, simplicity of harmony, and strict adherence to traditional procedure; his outstanding gifts as a pianist and conductor which made him a public idol; and perhaps above all his gracious manners and charming personality as a man, which earned him deivoted friends wherever he went and completely disarmed those who might have resented his powerful position and influence in the world of music. Musically speaking, Mendelssohn was a boy who never grew into manhood, and Brahms was a man who never had a boyhood. Let .me explain. From the age of 11 to 15 Mendelssohn's compositions were nothing more than a clever student's exercises. A year later his genius suddenly blossomed out with the beautiful and individually conceived Octet in G minor, and in the following year he wrote the miraculous and magical overture, "A Midsummer Night's Dream," which was to be his highest flight. And so Mendelssohn reached the zenith of his career at the age of 17 with a work which, despite its masterly workmanship and fairy perfection, remains the offspring of a childlike mind; and the best of his later works are those that express the same psychology. On the few occasions when Mendelssohn tried to be profound he was merely academic; and when he sought to express deep emotions he became merely sentimental.