Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy
At the age of 26, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy came from Berlin to Leipzig in 1835 to succeed the dismissed Christian August Pohlenz as Gewandhauskapellmeister In 12 years he has Gewandhausorchester now upper-class orchestra expanded.
Mendelssohn has the music city of Leipzig He was not only closely connected with the Gewandhaus in Leipzig but has also influenced the city as a whole. His work at the Gewandhaus is the origin of his connection to Leipzig. In his position as Gewandhauskapellmeister In contrast to other great musicians before and after his time, he was very committed to the interests of his musicians and was thus considered uniqueMendelssohn founded the first German music conservatory – today's University of Music and Theater Leipzig – which was part of the Gewandhaus at the time. This enabled him to train his own musicians.
Mendelssohn has numerous Travel He brought many impressions and experiences from his travels to Italy, France, England and Switzerland to Leipzig. Due to the high attractiveness his person and his sophistication Many people, especially the educated middle class, were drawn to Leipzig. Mendelssohn was like a Magnet for the people! The city quickly developed into a center of numerous innovations. The city of Leipzig honored Mendelssohn greatly. He was not only honorary citizen but also received the honorary doctorate in philosophy from the University of Leipzig.
Mendelssohn’s personality was brilliant and diverse. He was not only a Genius in matters Music, but also , painter, gifted in the Books and in the LanguagesOne could almost say that Mendelssohn was a all-round genius.
This was also his way of working. Mendelssohn never stopped thinking. He was never satisfied with anything. Only in this way could he create so much for which he was so highly regarded by others. highly regarded He never rested on his laurels!
source of inspiration Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a very big Source of inspiration for Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. Even as a child, Mendelssohn heard a lot of Bach, got many impressions of him and even played his works himself. With Bach in his heart, Mendelssohn's path led him to Leipzig - a city where Bach was not yet a household name. The music of Johann Sebastian Bach was played here, but who the works came from, which, for example, were played in the Thomas Church were performed was rather incidental.
In his new position as Gewandhaus Kapellmeister, Mendelssohn put Bach on the agenda. He made him a name. He devised a plan to bring Bach's works back into concert at the appropriate time of the year. In this way, Mendelssohn brought music back into people's minds.
If you walk through the streets of Leipzig today, you will come across Johann Sebastian Bach on every corner. Now you know that this is primarily the work of Mendelssohn. Without Mendelssohn, the Bach Museum would not exist today, which we will visit in the next episodes.
The Mendelssohn House
The former home of the Mendelssohn family is not far from the Leipzig city center. You can reach the location on foot in just a few minutes.
To visit the Mendelssohn House with all its details, you should at least twoHours Take your time. More is always better! The museum also offers a lot for younger visitors to discover. Children can, for example, dress up in a period costume. Every first Sundaya month The little visitors can enjoy the matinee concert in the coach house downstairs to Children's programme There they are offered a varied program. They can attend the conducting school, learn more about rhythms and beats or simply color in pictures if they don't like music.
Anne Brocke, Chairwoman of the International Society for the Promotion of the Mendelssohn House Leipzig eV, takes us through the towns where Mendelssohn lived today. The association's mission is to bring the musical and cultural heritage of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy closer to people and to preserve the house as the last remaining residence of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and to show it to people.
Matinée concert in the music salon
Come in to the Mendelssohn House. With 700 square meters, the house is as big as the ceiling painting in the Gewandhaus in Leipzig. Our tour through the house begins in the music salon on the upper floor. This room forms the central location of the museum. This is where the music literally plays! Every Sunday at 11 am there is a matinee concert You can hear a little taste of the enchanting music in the podcast. The duo Joséphine Olech on the flute and Marianne Salmona on the piano gives us a sample of the wonderful atmosphere in the music salon.
The work is not by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy himself, but it doesn't have to be. The Mendelssohn House offers a stage to artists from all over the world. You can find the current program here.
Insider tip What about that? It's best to visit the Mendelssohn House on a Sunday. Then you can not only marvel at the original furnishings of the music salon, but also experience first-hand at the matinee concert how it must have felt for the Mendelssohn family to receive their guests here, listen to music, eavesdrop on conversations and watch the people in their robes. This unique atmosphere is something very special and radiates exactly the flair that defines the house.
Christiane Schmidt is responsible for organizing events around the Mendelssohn House and accompanies us through the building.
Im music salon The Mendelssohns and many friends makes musicFelix Mendelssohn usually sat at the wing and improvised. Perhaps a guest has a quartet which was performed together. This was a social way of getting together, listening to music and talking about music. Today you can admire the wonderful, original setting of lime green walls and beautiful paintings for yourself.
Colorful Chambers
The next room is also original What we walk through today with such awe was a completely ordinary middle-class apartment at that time. Every room in the Mendelssohn House is decorated in a color. The former dining room is kept in a cool blue. The color concept goes back to the Color theory to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe His teaching is that dining and reception rooms should be decorated in cool tones so that people do not spend too much time there and are driven out to indulge in the important things in life.
The display cases in the Mendelssohn House can and should be touched. The drawers contain a lot of information about Mendelssohn, his life, Leipzig as a city of music, the development of Leipzig into a great music city in Europe but also very human things, because Mendelssohn was not only Composer, but also loved to eat and drink. That is why you will also find numerous RecipesThe recipes come from his letters. All of the dishes are dishes that he discovered on his travels and that he really enjoyed. You are welcome to take the recipes home with you and cook them yourself.
With Audioguides you can English, French and japanisch guided tour of the house. For all German-speaking visitors, numerous reading boards through the chambers of the Mendelssohn family.
The next door leads us into the family's children's rooms. They are painted green and yellow. The Mendelssohn family lived in the house with nine people. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy lived here with his Mrs. Cécile. The two had five children – Carl Wolfgang Paul, Marie, Paul, Felix and Lili. In addition, their two servants They lived in the middle room in the small corridors - valet Johann on one side and the court maid on the other. In the children's rooms you can find a historic grand piano, which is very difficult to tune but still playable. When the grand piano is played, you can hear the actual Sounds of the 19th Century, which sound completely different from the clearly defined sounds of today. The piano sounds in a very special soundAlthough it was only written one year after Mendelssohn's death in 1848, it has the same mechanics of the time that Mendelssohn experienced and helped shape through his compositions.
There are also display cases in the children's rooms - this time filled with information about the family - both the family from which Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy comes: with the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn at the top, and the following generation of his parents Abraham and Lea with their four children Fanny, Felix, Rebecca and Paul - as well as information about the family that Mendelssohn himself founded with his wife and children.
Mendelssohn's older sister Fanny
Mendelssohn's older sister Fanny also played music and was brought up musically together with her brother. It quickly became clear that the two of them were really brilliant. Her other two siblings were also good musicians, but Rebecca once said: “If my two older siblings Fanny and Felix were not so musically brilliant I would have been considered a very good musician in my family.” This shows that Fanny and Felix outshone everyone else at their concerts. They both loved making music, both loved Johann Sebastian Bach, both had a very deep understanding of music. Fanny was a fantastic pianist. You can hear that clearly in her compositions. Whenever she composed for the piano, the music was incredibly ornate and difficult to play.
In 2017, a new music area dedicated to Fanny. This area is dedicated to her Berlin apartment and gives a small insight into the music salon from BerlinHere you can enjoy a beautiful Film which explains how the Sunday concerts were created by the Mendelssohns – a Tradition of the familythat Mendelssohn brought with him to Leipzig. In this area you can learn a lot about Fanny and her musical ideas, about what she felt and what she wanted to achieve. The area is very vivid and touching.
Cécile's private room is a gleaming mint green. She may have entertained friends for tea in her salon and done her needlework. The bright room was perfect for doing needlework. Cécile even embroidered the stove screen that covered the stovepipe herself.
Famous compositions
Opposite is the study in which Mendelssohn composed The bright room is decorated in yellow, because yellow inspires. Here Mendelssohn actually wrote a lot of music that we know well today. Many of his piano works and songs his wife Cécile has in the music salon of the house premiered. In this room is the oratorio Elijah Mendelssohn, under the impression of the death of his sister Fanny, has created the Opus 80 written - a beautiful String QuartetAlso very well known is his Opus 66, the second piano trio that Mendelssohn created.
Conducting in the Effectorium
The stairs down to the ground floor lead us to the 2014 newly created area of the museumThis area was added so that guests can actually experience music. On the first floor is the contemplative, somewhat quiet museum. Here it is livelier Here you can go to the library and read the iPads Listen to and compare the works of Mendelssohn and Fanny and the so-called Effectorium The Effectorium is a wonderful instrument to teach children a lot about an orchestra and a choir. Not only children, but also adults gratefully absorb this information. This room was created to present Mendelssohn as Dirigent and to make it clear to the visitors how difficult it is to be a conductor and what a conductor must be able to do. 13 loudspeakers are distributed throughout the white-lit room. The large screen contains a computer and displays the conductor's desk The columns represent the 13 instrument groups of an orchestra. With the baton in your hand, you become the conductor yourself. You can conduct two orchestral works and two choral works.
This great feature is a perfect example of how a museum does not have to be just a collection of contemporary objects and information boards. In the Mendelssohn House you can get active yourself and Experience music up close!
In the next podcast episode we continue to follow the music trail into Bach Museum. Subscribe "Welcome to Leipzig - The podcast for your Leipzig trip" on Spotify, Apple Podcast, Google Podcast and Deezerso you don't miss any more episodes. Until next time, when we'll say: "Welcome to Leipzig".
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