Originally posted by Bryn
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BaL 1.06.19 - Mendelssohn: Symphony no. 4 "Italian"
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Many of his Lieder (with words) are right up there with the best of the genre (eg from Janet Baker in her prime with Geoffrey Parsons). A recent favourite recital disc from BIS contains seven Mendelssohn duets beautifully done in soprano/countertenor versions by Carolyn Sampson and Iestyn Davies.
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Poor Schubert, Mendelssohn, and Mozart: they all died young. They're all great composers but all were cut off in their prime and in each case, their last works suggested greater glories to come.
Mendelssohn's status suffered from a terrible diatribe by Richard Wagner.
If Wagner had died before reaching 40, he would not have achieved maturity with Rheingold and the rest of the Ring. Still, with little doubt, a Great composer, but we'd be busy arguing whether the early, derivative operas and his 'romantic' ones were reason enough.
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Originally posted by edashtav View PostI listened live and whilst I agree with the thrust if your remarks, Master Jaques, Oliver, as the heart of his name suggests, was lively and quite witty. I instance his accurate, and deadly, characterisation of John Eliot Gardiner's interpretation.
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Originally posted by MickyD View PostDo any of you eager Mendelssohnians know this early curiosity? It's worth seeking out.[/IMG]
It's intriguing to think what he might have done with Emanuel Geibel's intriguing libretto for Die Loreley, on which he was starting to work just before he died. This would have been a "big" opera, on themes - allied to Die erste Walpurgisnacht - of feminine sexuality and repressive Christianity. Mendelssohn's acolyte, the young Max Bruch, inherited the libretto and did a mighty fine job with it, but the lost Mendelssohn is (for me) one of the great "might-have-beens" of operatic history.
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