Mendelssohn: Lieder Ohne Worte (Songs Without Words)

Featuring

Axel Strauss
Cord Garben
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy

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Composer Biography

Mendelssohn's career included conducting the Lower Rhine Festival in Düsseldorf and an appointment as conductor of the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig in 1835.

Composer Biography

Felix Mendelssohn, born in Hamburg in 1809, was the son of a banker and grandson of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Mendelssohn's "Songs without Words" were personal musical diaries expressing purely musical ideas that he believed had no verbal equivalent.

Composer Biography

Mendelssohn died at the age of 38 in 1847, shortly after the death of his gifted and beloved sister Fanny.

Composition History

Publishers often suggested titles for Mendelssohn's "Songs without Words," a practice he himself denounced, though these titles are included in this album.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Mendelssohn strongly believed in the expressive power of music in its purest form, without the ambiguity of words.

Performer Biography

Friedrich Hermann, who arranged these "Songs without Words" for violin and piano, was a violin student and later professor at the Leipzig Conservatory, which Felix Mendelssohn founded.