Letters of Felix Mendelssohn to Ignaz and Charlotte Moscheles

Letters of Felix Mendelssohn to Ignaz and Charlotte Moscheles

The letters addressed by Felix Mendelssohn to my father came into my possession in 1870. After Mendelssohns death, my father had carefully arranged them in a special manuscript book, and had supplemented them with an index of the contents and a table showing the dates of the principal events in the life of his departed friend. If I have abstained from giving publicity to these letters for so long a time, it is because I thought such delay was in accordance with the wishes of both writers. Many passages occur in which prominent musicians of those days are unreservedly criticised,passages which I felt as little authorized to suppress as to publish during the lifetime of those alluded to. I trust they will be none the less interesting now that time has judged between the critics and those criticised. Nor did I feel justified in omitting passages that may prove of less interest to the general public than to a smaller circle; for they truly depict the warm friendship which, in the course of years, ripened between Mendelssohn and Moscheles, and they are thoroughly characteristic of the bright and genial way in which Mendelssohn would express his personal feelings.{x} For a copy of my fathers letters to Mendelssohn, I am indebted to Prof. Carl Mendelssohn, of Freiburg, the eldest son of the composer. From these I have made extracts, or embodied their substance in a commentary, where it seemed necessary to explain what Mendelssohn had written. To give them in full I deemed undesirable, so much of similar subject-matter from the pen of my father having already been made public, notably in the Life of Moscheles, edited by my mother. This biography is chiefly compiled from diaries extending over a period of nearly sixty years, and faithfully reflecting his impressions on the manifold incidents of his artistic career. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 51750
Author: Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Felix
Release Date: Apr 13, 2016
Format: eBook
Language: English

Contributors

Translator: Moscheles, Felix, 1833-1917