Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 2.djvu/275

MENDELSSOHN. and elevation of his son. 'To improve himself, and to make friends' was Mendelssohn's motto, not only during his grand tour but throughout his career.

It was their first serious parting. His father and Rebecka accompanied him to Hamburg. The boat (the 'Attwood') left on the Saturday evening before Easter Sunday, April 18, and it was not till noon on Tuesday, the 21st, that he reached the Custom House, London. The passage was a very bad one, the engines broke down, and Mendelssohn lay insensible for the whole of Sunday and Monday. He was welcomed on landing by Klingemann and Moscheles, and had a lodging at 103, Great Portland Street, where his landlord was Heincke, a German ironmonger.

It was the middle of the musical season, and Malibran made her first reappearance at the Opera, as Desdemona, on the night of his arrival. His account of her, with other letters describing this period, will be found in Hensel's 'Familie Mendelssohn' (i. 115–294), and in Devrient's 'Recollections.' Other singers in London at that time were Sontag, Pisaroni, Mad. Stockhausen, and Donzelli; also Velluti, the castrato, a strange survival of the ancient world, whom it is difficult to think of in connexion with Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy. De Beriot and Madame Dulcken were among the players. Fetis too was in London delivering his lectures on 'La musique a la portée de tout le monde,' in French, to English audiences.

Felix was much with the Moscheleses, and there met Neukomm, with whom, in everything but his music, he sympathised warmly.

His first appearance before an English audience was at the Philharmonic Concert (then held in the Argyll Rooms, at the upper end of Regent Street) on Monday evening, May 25, when he conducted his Symphony in C minor. Old John Cramer 'led him to the piano,' at which in those days the conductor sat or stood, 'as if he were a young lady.' The applause was immense, and the Scherzo (scored by him from his Ottet for this occasion, in place of the original Minuet and Trio) was obstinately encored against his wish. How deeply he felt the warmth of his reception may be seen from his letter to the Society. He published the Symphony with a dedication to the Philharmonic, and they on their part elected him an honorary member on Nov. 29, 1829. It was thus an English body which gave him his first recognition as a composer. The simple applause of London had wiped out the sneers and misunderstandings of Berlin. This he never forgot; it recurs throughout his correspondence, and animates his account of his latest visits to us. Near the close of his life he spoke of it as 'having lifted a stone from his heart.' The English had much to learn, and he could laugh heartily at them; but at least they loved him and his music, and were quite in earnest in their appreciation. Five days afterwards, on the 30th, at 2 p.m., he appeared again in the same room at what is vaguely called in the Times of June 1, 'the fourth grand concert.' He played the Concertstück of Weber—as the same journal informs us—'with no music before him.' A charming letter, equal to any in the whole collection for its gaiety and bright humour, describes his coming to the rooms early to try the piano—a new Clementi—and his losing himself in extemporising till he was recalled by finding that the audience were taking their seats. Two other concerts must be mentioned:—one by Drouet, the flute-player, on Midsummer Night, at which, most appropriately, the Overture to the Midsummer Night's Dream was given, for the first time in England, and he himself played the E&#x266d; Concerto of Beethoven, then an absolute novelty in this country. After the concert the score of the overture was left in the hackney coach by Mr. Attwood, and lost. On Mendelssohn's hearing of it, he said, 'Never mind, I will make another.' He did, and on comparing it with the parts no variations were found. The other concert was on July 13, for the benefit of the sufferers from the floods in Silesia. At this the Overture was repeated, and Felix and Moscheles played (for the first and only time in England) a Concerto by the former for two Pianofortes and Orchestra, in E. All this was a brilliant beginning, as far as compositions went; it placed him in the best possible position before the musical society of London, but it did not do much to solve the question of livelihood, since the only commission which we hear of his receiving, and which delighted him hugely, he was compelled for obvious reasons to decline, viz. a festival hymn for Ceylon for the anniversary of the emancipation of the natives!—an idea so comical that he says it had kept him laughing inwardly for two days. A MS. letter of this time (dated June 7) is signed 'Composer to the Island of Ceylon.'

But he found time for other things besides music; for the House of Commons, and picture galleries, and balls at Devonshire House and Lansdowne House, and so many other parties, that the good people at home took fright and thought he was giving up music for society, and would become a drawing-room ornament. The charm of his manner and his entire simplicity took people captive, and he laid a good foundation this year for the time to come.

An amusing little picture of himself and his friends Rosen and Mühlenfeld, coming home late from a state dinner at the Prussian Ambassador's, buying three German sausages, and then finding a quiet street in which to devour them, with a