Mendelssohn: The Complete Solo Piano Music 6

Featuring

Howard Shelley
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy

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Critical Reception

Mendelssohn's reputation suffered in the 20th century due to factors like a reaction against Victorianism and the banning of his music by the Nazis, despite his Lutheran baptism.

Compositional Technique

Mendelssohn is primarily remembered for inventing the 'Lied ohne Worte' (Song without Words), a short character-piece for piano described by Robert Schumann as a song with its text suppressed.

Compositional Technique

In some of his preludes, Mendelssohn experimented with the 'three-hand effect,' embedding a melody in the middle register framed by arpeggiations and a bass line, a technique popularized by Sigismond Thalberg.

Performer Biography

Howard Shelley, the pianist on this recording, has a discography exceeding 180 albums and has conducted all major London orchestras, including a long association with the London Mozart Players.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Mendelssohn was compared to a 'second Mozart' by figures like Goethe and Heine, and Robert Schumann described him as the 'Mozart of the nineteenth century'.

Composer Biography

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy was considered one of the greatest pianists of the nineteenth century, achieving legendary status for his performances and improvisations.

Composition History

Mendelssohn's Perpetuum mobile was a playful attempt to create a musical answer to the quest for a perpetual-motion machine, and also an homage to Carl Maria von Weber.