Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 2.djvu/289

MENDELSSOHN. describing half-humorously, half-pathetically, the difficulty which the obscurities of the originals had given him amid all his professional labours. With irrepressible energy he embraced the first moment of an approach to leisure, after what he describes as a 'really overpowering turmoil,' to write a long and carefully-studied official communication to the Kreis-Director, or Home Minister of Saxony, urging that a legacy recently left by a certain Herr Blümner should be applied to the formation of a solid music academy at Leipzig. This was business; but, in addition, during all these months there are long letters to Hiller, Chorley, his mother, Fanny, Paul, and Fürst (and remember that only a small part of those which he wrote has been brought within our reach); and yet he managed to compose both the Lobgesang and the Festgesang for the Festival in commemoration of the invention of Printing, which was held in Leipzig on June 25, the former of which is as characteristic and important a work as any in the whole series of his compositions. The music for both these was written at the express request of the Town Council, acting through a committee whose chairman was Dr. Raymond Härtel, and the first communication with Mendelssohn on the subject was made about the end of the previous July. We know from Mendelssohn himself that the title 'Symphonie Cantata' is due to Klingemann, but the words are probably Mendelssohn's own selection, no trace of any communication with Schubring, Bauer, or Fürst being preserved in the published letters or recollections, and the draft of the words having vanished.

The Festival extended over two days, Wednesday and Thursday, June 24 and 25. On Tuesday evening there was a 'Vorfeier' in the shape of an opera by Lortzing, 'Hans Sachs,' composed for the occasion. At 8 a.m. on Wednesday was a service in the church with a cantata by Richter (of Zittau), followed by the unveiling of the printing press and statue of Gutenberg, and by a performance in the open market-place of Mendelssohn's Festgesang for two choirs and brass instruments, he conducting the one chorus and David the other. On Thursday afternoon a concert was held in St. Thomas's Church, consisting of Weber's Jubilee Overture, Handel's Dettingen Te Deum, and Mendelssohn's Lobgesang.

Hardly was this over when he went to Schwerin with his wife, to conduct St. Paul and other large works, at a Festival there (July 8–10). On the way back they stopped in Berlin for 'three very pleasant days.' Another matter into which at this time he threw all his devotion was the erection of a monument to Sebastian Bach in front of his old habitat at the 'Thomas School.' The scheme was his own, and he urged it with characteristic heartiness. But dear as the name and fame of Bach were to him, he would not consent to move till he had obtained (from the town council) an increase to the pay of the orchestra of the Gewandhaus Concerts. For this latter object he obtained 500 thalers, and on Aug. 10 gave an organ performance solissimo in St. Thomas's church, by which he realised 300 thalers. Even this he would not do without doing his very best, and he describes to his mother how he had practised so hard for a week before 'that he could hardly stand on his feet, and the mere walking down the street was like playing a pedal passage.' After such a six months no wonder that his health was not good, and that his 'physician wanted to send him to some Brunnen instead of a Musical Festival.' To a Festival, however, he went. The Lobgesang had not escaped the attention of the energetic Mr. Moore, who managed the music in Birmingham, and some time before its first performance he had written to Mendelssohn with the view of securing it for the autumn meeting. On July 21 Mendelssohn writes in answer, agreeing to come, and making his stipulations as to the other works to be performed. It was his sixth visit to England.

There was a preliminary rehearsal of the work in London under Moscheles's care. Mendelssohn arrived on Sept. 8, visited all his London friends, including the Alexanders, Horsleys, Moscheles, and Klingemann (with whom he stayed, at 4 Hobart Place, Pimlico), went down to Birmingham with Moscheles, and stayed with Mr. Moore. On Tuesday he played a fugue on the organ; on Wednesday, the 23rd, conducted the Lobgesang, and after it was over, and the public had left the hall, played for three-quarters of an hour on the organ. The same day he played his G minor Concerto at the evening concert. On Thursday, after a selection from Handel's Jephthah, he again extemporised on the organ, this time in public. The selection had closed with a chorus, the subjects of which he took for his improvisation, combining 'Theme sublime' with 'Ever faithful' in a masterly manner. On his return to town—on Sept. 30—he played the organ at St. Peter's, Cornhill—Bach's noble Prelude and Fugue in E minor, his own in C minor (op. 37, no. 1) and F minor, the latter not yet published—

and other pieces, concluding with Bach's Passacaglia. Of this last he wrote a few bars as a memento, which still ornament the vestry of the