# Mendelssohn: Just How Highly Do You Estimate Him?



## ORigel (May 7, 2020)

Inspired by the thread started by Littlephrase1913.

Felix Mendelssohn is another composer often called "underrated" by proponents, for example in CD jackets. So what do you think?

Is Mendelssohn just a child prodigy that regressed "from genius to talent" (Hans von Bulow)? Is his music merely "pretty" (George Bernard Shaw, falling short of the profundity of the greats?

Is Mendelssohn a great or very good composer, yet no better than some of his contemporaries (Berlioz, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt)?

Or is Mendelssohn the equal of Brahms or Schubert, sadly neglected?

In my opinion, Mendelssohn is the best early Romantic composer other than Schubert and Beethoven, but still decidedly second-tier. Some of his works such as the Octet and Hebrides Overture are masterpieces. I love his Elijah (partly because of the libretto by Bartholomew) and appreciate his Paulus. And the Reformation Symphony is underrated.


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## Littlephrase (Nov 28, 2018)

In terms of natural musical genius, he was the heir apparent to Mozart, but I often find myself wishing he wrote more music. Everything he wrote was of high quality. The chamber works are delightful, the mature symphonies and concertos are very good, the sacred/oratorio works are not my thing, but still undeniably beautiful. Yet despite this, I find there is something lacking for me. Compared to his contemporaries Berlioz and Schumann, composers that I adore for their staggering individuality and originality, I find very little of that same attraction to Mendelssohn. There are individual works I admire, but as a whole, there is something missing. I’m not sure what exactly it is.


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## MatthewWeflen (Jan 24, 2019)

I rate him 11. I think his music is generally delightful and I always enjoy it.


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## Brahmsian Colors (Sep 16, 2016)

I currently rate Mendelssohn ninth in my top ten favorites list. I especially enjoy his "Scottish" and "Italian" Symphonies, 
A Midsummer Night's Dream, Violin Concerto and Hebrides Overture.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

Mendelssohn isn't even in my top 50. His symphonies and vocal works do nothing for me. I can't tolerate his violin concerto, and the Octet almost makes me sick. However, the piano trios and string quartets are fetching.


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## EmperorOfIceCream (Jan 3, 2020)

Violin concerto, string quartets, octet, piano trios, are amazing. However I think the piano concerti are examples of when he is just less imaginative. I would actually rank him above Schubert in terms of orchestral compositions, but Schubert's piano solo music is just so much more brilliant than Mendelssohn.


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## vtpoet (Jan 17, 2019)

I would rank Fanny Mendelssohn as one of the truly underrated composers, unless you were referring to her lesser known brother?


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## Allegro Con Brio (Jan 3, 2020)

I like him, but he probably wouldn’t make my top 30. I love the Scottish symphony but not so much the rest. The Octet and some of his other chamber music like his string quartets and piano trios are wonderful and I’m also partial to the Songs Without Words and the organ sonatas. However I can’t stand some of his more popular works like the violin concerto and Midsummer Night’s Dream; and Elijah bores me solid. 

Huh, I guess I like more stuff from him than I thought I did...I guess I just let my dislike for that popular violin concerto cloud my judgment.


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## Brahmsian Colors (Sep 16, 2016)

Bulldog said:


> Mendelssohn isn't even in my top 50. His symphonies and vocal works do nothing for me. I can't tolerate his violin concerto, and the Octet almost makes me sick. However, the piano trios and string quartets are fetching.


I too do not care at all for his vocal works _or_ his Octet


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## Plague (Apr 4, 2020)

Mendelssohn is an interesting case for me. There isn't one piece of his music that I don't enjoy, nor is there one piece I truly love and can't live without. I don't mind listening to him all day long or not listening to him for an entire year.


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## Littlephrase (Nov 28, 2018)

Plague said:


> Mendelssohn is an interesting case for me. There isn't one piece of his music that I don't enjoy, nor is there one piece I truly love and can't live without. I don't mind listening to him all day long or not listening to him for an entire year.


My feelings exactly.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

A great composer, with mature masterworks such as the E minor violin concerto, the D minor piano trio, F minor string quartet, and some Songs without words, etc.
But at the same time, I think that some people tend to exaggerate his early achievements a bit. I've talked with DavidA about this once.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

I rate him very highly but then I like music that is to be enjoyed. I’m sure that nobody in their right mind takes any notice of George Bernard Shaw’s opinion if you listen to the Octet or the Scottish Symphony.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Bulldog said:


> Mendelssohn isn't even in my top 50. His symphonies and vocal works do nothing for me. I can't tolerate his violin concerto, and the Octet almost makes me sick. However, the piano trios and string quartets are fetching.


I feel very sorry for you I really do if you can't even tolerate the violin concerto and such a radiant work as the Octet makes you sick. I was listening to the Octet the other night and thinking how miraculous it was. But then we are all different.


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## Axter (Jan 15, 2020)

Interestingly my weekend was full of Mendelssohn, and I enjoyed it a lot.
I rank him very highly in my favourites' list. "Scotish", "Italian" symph. and the Violin Concerto are simply beautiful.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Last time I did a ranking, he came in at #12 of my personal favourites. Pretty high, considering I can easily name a hundred composers I like a lot. Axter named my top favourites in his oeuvre, and I'd like to add the organ sonatas.


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## Jacck (Dec 24, 2017)

Art Rock said:


> Last time I did a ranking, he came in at #12 of my personal favourites. Pretty high, considering I can easily name a hundred composers I like a lot. Axter named my top favourites in his oeuvre, and I'd like to add the organ sonatas.


I admire people who have such precise ranking systems for their composers. I could not rank the first 3 :tiphat:


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Jacck said:


> I admire people who have such precise ranking systems for their composers. I could not rank the first 3 :tiphat:


I don't tend to rank them. Just enjoy the music. Far better.


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## Jacck (Dec 24, 2017)

DavidA said:


> I don't tend to rank them. Just enjoy the music. Far better.


I likely rank them unknowingly, ie there are general categories of those I like a lot, and those a like less and those I like not that much (and they are fluid). But I really could not tell if I rate higher Debussy or Scriabin or Schumann.


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## MrMeatScience (Feb 15, 2015)

I really like Mendelssohn, but agree with the general sentiment here that he doesn't crack the uppermost echelon (with the exception of a few choice works like the violin concerto, the octet, Midsummer's, etc). Not yet mentioned though are the piano concertos, which I adore and don't get talked about nearly enough. The Reformation symphony is also weirdly overlooked in comparison to the Scottish and Italian.


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## Fabulin (Jun 10, 2019)

Mendelssohn is an excellent example of how do we rate a composer of more or less perfect music, but not extremely prolific. He doesn't have enough "firepower" to become more impactful or important than the cream of the crop.

Top 10 he belongs in still, I suppose. 

My aggregation of historical opinions by great composers resulted in him being ranked 9th or 10th the last time I checked.


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## waldhoerer (Oct 12, 2020)

I like him very much, he is one of the greatest - most for his Italian symphony and his violin concerto...


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## Reichstag aus LICHT (Oct 25, 2010)

IMHO he wrote the best symphonic choral works since Haydn, better symphonies than Schumann and better quartets than Schubert - at least, I enjoy them more. Mendelssohn's string symphonies are delightful, and he also wrote some fine concertos. The Violin Concerto is justifiably famous, but his somewhat neglected Piano Concertos are excellent, and there's a lovely Double Concerto for violin and piano, too.


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## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

He is one of the greatest -- No. 18 in my survey about equal to Stravinsky. He has a number of pieces in the standard repertory -- the violin concerto, "Italian" symphony and Elijah, the greatest oratorio not written by Handel.

He wrote memorable music is almost every genre -- symphonic, chamber, choral, solo instrumental -- that has continued to be played and recorded two centuries after his death. It is only in opera where he did not distinguish himself -- same as Brahms and Schumann.

His cantatas (he called them psalms) are the best since Bach. It should also be remembered it was Mendelssohn that rediscovered Bach's St. Matthew Passion, premiered it, and made it into the masterpiece we know today.

To suggest Mendelssohn is "second tier" means the composers not as good as him -- Britten, Chopin, Debussy, Liszt, Elgar, Mahler -- what are they? Third tier?

He was in his day beloved throughout Europe and considered the second coming of Mozart. Here are some other things you may not know about him: https://www.classicfm.com/composers/mendelssohn/guides/facts/david-4/

Regardless of whether or not you like his music it is foolish to think Mendelssohn not among the greatest composers in history. There simply are not that many other composers with his hits, importance and staying power.


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## Coach G (Apr 22, 2020)

Mendelssohn was a great musical figure. Not just a great composer, but also (so I read) important as a conductor who revived works by Bach and also properly programmed the Beethoven symphonies. While I have a comprehensive sample of Mendelssohn's orchestral works within my own music library (The _Symphonies 3, 4 & 5_; the _Violin Concerto_, _Hebrides Overture_, _Elijah_, and a few other things); I can't say that I've ever been moved to go much further. Then again, I'm not too much for the early, high Romantic (very pretty) music of Schubert, Schumann, Mendelssohn, and Chopin. The Mendelssohn symphonies are entertaining, though; and the _Violin Concerto_ rightly deserves it's place as one of the great Romantic show-piece Violin Concertos to go along with Brahms, Tchaikovsky, and Bruch (#1).


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## vtpoet (Jan 17, 2019)

I see Mendelssohn, in ways, as the Telemann of his era. Capable of writing great and surpassing music, but hit or miss in doing so. His melodic inventiveness was often superior to his instinct for harmony, and the former suffered for it.


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## Fabulin (Jun 10, 2019)

vtpoet said:


> I see Mendelssohn, in ways, as the Telemann of his era. Capable of writing great and surpassing music, but hit or miss in doing so. His melodic inventiveness was often superior to his instinct for harmony, and the former suffered for it.


I find such a comparison to Telemann to be very sketchy. Telemann was probably the most prolific composer we know of, whereas Mendelssohn's output was about 1/2 of that of others on his level of excellence. Even if we take it into account that Mendelssohn had 25 years of a career and Telemann nearly seven decades, the difference is still great. Telemann also doesn't seem to have had such high peaks as Mendelssohn did.


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## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

I think comparisons to Telemann are inept. Name two pieces of Telemann regularly played in subscription concerts, regularly recorded and beloved by millions of classical music lovers. Telemann is the epitome of the second tier composer to me.


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## neofite (Feb 19, 2017)

"Mendelssohn: Just How Highly Do You Estimate Him?"

Very highly, very near the top. Even if he did not write more than a handful of his most sublime works, they alone would be sufficient to elevate him to that position. I agree that the comparison with Telemann makes absolutely no sense.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

I have to admit that for a long time I didn't play any Mendelssohn at home, but I did spend a lot of time listening to his contemporaries like Raff who are mostly forgotten. Then last month I decided to pull some of Felix's music off the shelf and give a listen - and then it hit me: this is GREAT music. The last three symphonies are just stunning. The violin concerto is perfect - not too long, beautiful tunes. The Octet is a joy start to finish. The next day I listened to the string symphonies - what masterworks and from a teenager! The Midsummers' Night music is still astonishingly beautiful and fresh. I didn't care much for Elijah - it's one of those big choral things the Victorians liked so much, but just doesn't resonate today, at least for me. Then came the chamber music - what wonderful invention. Yes, Mendelssohn is one of the greats. And to think if WW2 had gone a different way we might all have been deprived of this wonderful music.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Looking purely on a symphonic level, Beethoven was my first love. Mendelssohn came second, and I still love his symphonies. Along with that I put Mendelssohn and Rachmaninoff. I think Shostakovich symphonies may have a place too, but so far have barely scratched the surface, mainly knowing #7, but having a whole set for at least a year or so, I need to listen to them all but the urge has not yet hit me and I have so much opera to listen to yet.

EDIT: I meant to include Mahler with my favorite symphonic composers, but forgot.


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## Xisten267 (Sep 2, 2018)

Usually I place Mendelssohn in my top 10 list of composers. I'm a fan of his music and love pieces such as his three final symphonies, the violin concerto, the late chamber music (particularly the last string quartet and the string quintets), a _Midsummer Night's Dream_, the oratorio _Elijah_, and others. Somehow I never became impressed by his famous Octet though.


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## ORigel (May 7, 2020)

SixFootScowl said:


> Looking purely on a symphonic level, Beethoven was my first love. Mendelssohn came second, and I still love his symphonies. Along with that I put Mendelssohn and Rachmaninoff. I think Shostakovich symphonies may have a place too, but so far have barely scratched the surface, mainly knowing #7, but having a whole set for at least a year or so, I need to listen to them all but the urge has not yet hit me and I have so much opera to listen to yet.


You do not like the symphonies of Mahler, Bruckner, Sibelius, Brahms, Mozart, or Haydn?


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## Eclectic Al (Apr 23, 2020)

Mendelssohn is on my "rising star" list. (No, I don't really have one, but you might get the idea.)
I largely ignored him (apart from the violin concerto and the F minor string quartet) because he wasn't Beethoven or Brahms.
I've lately been approaching him from the String Symphony end, loving those, so the idea is that as I work towards his "more mature" works I'll be on the page.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

ORigel said:


> You do not like the symphonies of Mahler, Bruckner, Sibelius, Brahms, Mozart, or Haydn?


Thanks for catching that. Mahler was my third in symponic loves. I edited my post to fix it.

Haven't explored Bruckner, Sibelius, Mozart, or Haydn? I have cycles of Brahms, Saint-Saens, and Nielsen. Just haven't spent much time there. Brahms was difficult, but I finally cracked through with Brahms 4.


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## Simplicissimus (Feb 3, 2020)

I rate Mendelssohn very highly, I think a lot more highly than most people around here. He is my favorite early Romantic composer. I enjoy _Elias_ (Elijah) tremendously, though that's an unpopular view, I know. I find the vocal and choral writing superb and moving. This vocal sense carries into the _Songs Without Words_, which are some of my favorite solo piano music. The symphonies are simply brilliant and the chamber music is as fine, to me, as that of Mozart and Haydn. I've always been a huge fan of Mendelssohn and unapologetic about it. When I was in college the other music students weren't into him and liked to try to convince me that he was "second tier" and so on, which was fine then and is fine now. I just really like Mendelssohn.


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## Chilham (Jun 18, 2020)

Mendelssohn's Piano Trios are the reason I'm now listening to classical music. Beyond that, I've yet to listen to much of his work, but for that, I'm grateful.


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## vtpoet (Jan 17, 2019)

Fabulin said:


> I find such a comparison to Telemann to be very sketchy. Telemann was probably the most prolific composer we know of, whereas Mendelssohn's output was about 1/2 of that of others on his level of excellence. Even if we take it into account that Mendelssohn had 25 years of a career and Telemann nearly seven decades, the difference is still great. Telemann also doesn't seem to have had such high peaks as Mendelssohn did.


Well yes. The analogy only goes so far. (I see I've touched a nerve.) But as with any analogy, you can pick and choose. In favor of the analogy is that they were both child prodigies. I think Telemann wrote his first full length opera at the age of twelve. And, as I wrote, I hear a surpassing gift for melody in both composers, but one that exceeds their instincts for harmony. I'm not sure that I see Mendelssohn as a better composer than Telemann (which is sure to touch another nerve) but he's certainly not a lesser composer. Mendelssohn is more beloved than Telemann, for sure, but some of that may be due to Romantic music being more popular than baroque music in general? But I speculate.


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## vtpoet (Jan 17, 2019)

larold said:


> I think comparisons to Telemann are inept. Name two pieces of Telemann regularly played in subscription concerts, regularly recorded and beloved by millions of classical music lovers. Telemann is the epitome of the second tier composer to me.


He's definitely a second tier composer who wrote some first rate music. I feel the same way about Mendelssohn. Your question is interesting though and I'd answer it by arguing that baroque music, in general, has historically been neglected in favor of classical/ Romantic music (as far as subscription concerts go). Playing baroque music usually leaves half a modern orchestra twiddling their thumbs unless you go full-on Leopold Stokowski. So, pointing out that Telemann isn't played much, if at all, in subscription concerts isn't saying much. Telemann also has had a lot of catching up to do (compared to Mendelssohn) but, in the meantime, his Viola Concerto, especially, and his Wassermusik are increasingly beloved by the millions who actually like baroque music.

Anyway, I will be filing this in the "Your Unpopular Opinion" thread. 

Your unpopular opinion


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## MusicSybarite (Aug 17, 2017)

He was one of my first 'loves' in classical music, so I have his music in high esteem. I have a great deal of works I like by him:

Symphonies 1, 3, 4 and his string symphonies contain delightful music.

The piano concertos are pretty nice, above all the No. 1. The famous Violin Concerto is not bad either. There is a gem that is few commented: his *Concerto for violin, piano and strings in D minor.* If you don't know it yet, don't walk, run!

His astonishing high-quality chamber music that includes the Octet, the three early piano quartets, the two superb piano trios, the lovely string quartets + his masterpiece in the genre: the SQ No. 6 in F minor, inspired by the death of his beloved sister Fanny; the two charming string quintets and the two engaging cello sonatas.

The Hebrides Overture is one of my favorites.

It's been so long since I listened to Songs without Words, but even today I have nice memories of them.

HOWEVER (as certain man often says  ), my blind spot is his choral music. _Elijah_ and _Paulus_ are regarded as important examples in Romantic choral music.


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## Olias (Nov 18, 2010)

I love Mendelssohn's music because I feel that he successfully mixed classical forms with romantic expression without pretentiousness of others (Liszt, Berlioz, Wagner, etc.). I guess he'd be around 8th or 9th for me in my top 10 list.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Just about the same as Handel and Haydn.


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## trbl0001 (Sep 13, 2020)

I think he's one of the greats, especially for the chamber music, but also the symphonies and concerti.

I think critics are a bit sniffy about him, partly because of his popularity, but also because there's no great narrative around him like with Wagner, say, or Schumann, and because he's seen as a bit establishment. The only reason to like him is the music itself. That's why I'm always a bit suspicious of people that dismiss him. Still, one can hardly say he's under-rated given how much his music is performed.

One recent discovery of mine of his is the overture "Meeresstille und glückliche Fahrt" - worth a listen if you don't already know it.


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## Geoff48 (Aug 15, 2020)

The violin concerto is the first major work I remember on 7 78 sides with Menuhin and Enesco. Glorious tunes, really beautiful. Still my favourite violin concerto together with Tchaikovsky’s. Maybe the Beethoven or Brahms is greater but certainly not as loveable. Then the third live concert I went to as a schoolboy included the 1st piano concerto. I really loved it and the piece was a musical earwig for a long time. Then when I started buying records the third LP included The Hebrides, arguably the greatest and most evocative seascape ever written.
Other Mendelssohn I got to know from the record library was the Italian symphony, Ruy Blas, the midsummer night’s dream music, I loved them all.
Now I’m not suggesting that Mendelssohn didn’t have some music which was workmanlike but where genius was absent. The Reformation symphony, many of the songs without words though spring song still brings a smile to my eyes, and Elijah and other choral music. One particular dislike is Hear my prayer ‘ oh for the wings of a dove’ . In so many cases Mendelssohn seems to be going through the motions. But he certainly isn’t the first composer who wrote for money.
So a composer who wrote some wonderful music. Not the most emotional but tuneful and well written. For me Mendelssohn is one of the greater composers, arguably more so than Schumann, his main contemporary and comparator.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

I don't listen to Mendelssohn very much, if ever.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

The violin concerto is one of the finest works for the instrument. Unfortunately it’s often been played as a sweet work whereas it’s far more dramatic than that. In the hands of a great player it can really make your hair stand on end


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

I recently managed to ruffle some feathers by the suggestion (that I thought closer to common opinion than bold provocation) that Mendelssohn @12-18 was better than Mozart at the same age. I still think that this is true, certainly for instrumental music (so I do not have to listen to 3 hours of _La finta giardiniera_ or Litanies and Masses to find out if this might tip the scales. 
But for the overall estimation it does not matter so much that Mendelssohn was probably the greatest teenaged composer in history. 
I'd also put Mendelssohn a bit behind Schubert, Schumann and Brahms, but unlike in the first posting of the thread this is not second tier but still towards the end of the first, around rank 8-12 for me.

I personally prefer his music clearly to Liszt and Berlioz but this is partly because I love chamber music and there is obviously no contest  I'd rate his chamber and orchestral music equal to Schumann's, his choral music probably ahead (although I am at the same time thinking that romantic choral music is underrated and not the greatest fan myself), but Schumann gets the edge for this piano music and lieder (where Mendelssohn wrote good but hardly any exceptional pieces).

Now, is Mendelssohn one of the few composers who "got worse" during his life. I don't agree but I also think that he didn't really improve/expand after he had reached an incredible level at 18-20. The three stunning early masterworks he could hardly improve upon are the octet, the MSND ouverture (the rest of the incidental music was added much later) and the quartet a minor op.13.

Despite Beethoven and Weber, the ouverture basically creates the genre of romantic concert ouverture with a poetic sujet and it is both completely original and a perfect evocation of the play's atmosphere (or came to define it, which would be even higher praise...) Mendelssohn wrote two further superb (Brahms supposedly said about the "Fingals cave" he could never write anything as beautiful) exemplars and two not quite on that level (Calm sea etc. and Ruy Blas).

The octet is an utterly brilliant piece but not only brilliant surface (there is nothing wrong with brilliance if one does it well, cf. e.g. the Kreutzer sonata). Mendelssohn also invented the "elfin scherzo" that became one of his trademarks.

But the a minor quartet written when he was 18 is for me the most stunning earlyish Mendelssohn. I prefer this even to the later f minor quartet, it's probably my favorite chamber work of his. The miracle is that Mendelssohn, a few months after Beethoven's death takes inspiration from the latters op.95, 132 and 135 but creates something entirely his own, with cyclical elements stronger than in Beethoven and another "invention", a moderately paced 2/4 intermezzo in place of a scherzo or menuet, again something that became a standard option for later romantics. This is a sophisticated and passionate piece and for me in the first league of string quartets (I have a superleague but this contains almost only late Beethoven ), comparable with Schubert's D804 or Mozart's d minor or Brahms' quartets.

So what, if Mendelssohn could not go much further? He wrote quite a lot of chamber music on a comparable level or slightly below (the op.44 quartets and the cello sonatas going more towards the brilliance of the octet). His violin concerto is a perennial favorite (I prefer it to Beethoven's and all romantics except Brahms), the Italian and especially "Scottish" symphonies are very good, I also like the "Reformation" despite some flaws.
I suspect that Mendelssohn tends to be underrated because his greatest works besides the overfamiliar violin concerto, ouvertures and "Italian" are two oratorios that stand for a dated "Victorian" religiousness and chamber works.


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## JohnP (May 27, 2014)

Kreisler jr said:


> I recently managed to ruffle some feathers by the suggestion (that I thought closer to common opinion than bold provocation) that Mendelssohn @12-18 was better than Mozart at the same age. I still think that this is true, certainly for instrumental music (so I do not have to listen to 3 hours of _La finta giardiniera_ or Litanies and Masses to find out if this might tip the scales.
> But for the overall estimation it does not matter so much that Mendelssohn was probably the greatest teenaged composer in history.
> I'd also put Mendelssohn a bit behind Schubert, Schumann and Brahms, but unlike in the first posting of the thread this is not second tier but still towards the end of the first, around rank 8-12 for me.
> 
> ...


I'm not qualified to argue this point, but I don't disagree with you. The young Mendelssohn was a phenomenon we very rarely see. I do enjoy the Octet, Op. 20 even more than the wonderful A minor Quartet, and it was written when he was even younger. It's one of the most genial, joyous, uplifting works I know. Indeed, I think that Mendelssohn's generally sunny nature is responsible for his being underrated. German musicians are supposed to be profound, even dark. That's actually why I love Mendelssohn and why I so often turn to French music. Ned Rorem remarked on the tendency of Germanic music to seek profundity and French composers to infuse their works with light and be more interested in entertaining. He chose French music as a model. I can't help thinking that he must have loved Mendelssohn.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

JohnP said:


> The young Mendelssohn was a phenomenon we very rarely see. I do enjoy the Octet, Op. 20 even more than the wonderful A minor Quartet, and it was written when he was even younger.


We also have to look at when he _editted and published_ those pieces; he wasn't "under employment" at, say, age 17; wasn't under obligation to do it as soon as he "wrote" it.



hammeredklavier said:


> "Recent research by Nicolas Kitchen of the Borromeo Quartet reveals that a more mature Mendelssohn somewhat substantially edited the score before its final publication in 1832." https://www.earsense.org/chamber-music/Felix-Mendelssohn-Octet-in-E-flat-major-Op-20/





hammeredklavier said:


> https://www.jonathanblumhofer.com/writings/program-notes/mendelssohn-string-quintet-no-1/
> "His two string quintets, both of which follow Mozart's lead and call for two violas, are separated by twenty years, yet both are marked by freshness of affect and the spirit of youth. This is especially true of the first, written before Mendelssohn turned twenty and revised when he was at the ripe old age of twenty-four."


And while early Mendelssohn is impressive; I still feel the fuss (about how he's so much better than the other composers) is a bit too much sometimes:



hammeredklavier said:


> That says nothing about the quality. I still think this way about early Mendelssohn; he starts off with something chatty, and then in the next bars he goes higher, and and in the next, he goes even higher, and again, again, so on ...
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## Brahmsian Colors (Sep 16, 2016)

It's the collective enjoyment I derive from only five of Mendelssohn's works---complete Midsummer Night's Dream, "Italian" and "Scottish" Symphonies, Violin Concerto and Hebrides Overture---that currently keeps him at number nine among my ten favorite composers.


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## Xisten267 (Sep 2, 2018)

Kreisler jr said:


> His violin concerto is a perennial favorite (I prefer it to Beethoven's and all romantics except Brahms), the Italian and especially "Scottish" symphonies are very good, I also like the "Reformation" despite some flaws.


_Lobgesang_ anyone? It surely reveals wonderful music in the hands of a competent maestro. And it's worth noting that it's a mature work, finished after the _Reformation_ and _Italian_ symphonies.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

Not so highly. Schumann and Brahms are way better.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

For some reason I've never been interested in Mendelssohn. His music always struck me as watered down.


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## MatthewWeflen (Jan 24, 2019)

I recently did a deep chamber dive on Mendelssohn with the Presto Classical download sale. I acquired his piano trios, piano quartets, piano sextet, octet, cello and piano duos, and concerto for violin and piano. The piano quartets blew me away, and all of it is of a very high level of quality, rivaling Brahms or Schubert's chamber and piano output.






As such, Mendelssohn has climbed a few spots on my personal top 20, now resting at no. 6. I already enjoyed his symphonies quite a bit, and the chamber work pushed him above Schubert for me (who also enjoyed a recent bump on my list due to his superlative string quartets). We will see if Schumann enjoys a similar bump when I dive into the set of his chamber works (piano trios and string quartets)I also acquired in the sale.

So, suffice it to say, I estimate him pretty highly.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

MatthewWeflen said:


> I recently did a deep chamber dive on Mendelssohn with the Presto Classical download sale. I acquired his piano trios, piano quartets, piano sextet, octet, cello and piano duos, and concerto for violin and piano. The piano quartets blew me away, and all of it is of a very high level of quality, rivaling Brahms or Schubert's chamber and piano output.


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