Composer of the Week: Mendelssohn

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Composer of the Week

Music: Classical

An informative guide to composers' lives and their music.

An informative and accessible guide to composers' lives and their music.

Composer of the Week: Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847): Tea at Buckingham Palace

Tea at Buckingham Palace

Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847), Tea at Buckingham Palace

Mendelssohn meets Dickens, Thackeray and the Queen in London.

By the time of Mendelssohn’s eighth sojourn in Britain, he was at the height of his fame and everyone wanted to meet him, from Dickens to Queen Victoria. With Donald Macleod.

Donald Macleod looks at Mendelssohn’s trips to Britain in the early 1840s, when he's at the height of his fame, and goes for tea at Buckingham Palace.

Mendelssohn’s relationship with Britain began when he was 20 years old, when London became the first stop of his Grand Tour.  This week Donald Macleod explores the composer's experiences in Britain, considering the mark he left on musical life in these islands, the works he wrote here, and what he got up to in the course of the ten visits he made across his lifetime.  Mendelssohn took inspiration from the scenery, but he also got his first professional engagements in Britain, and in return, by the end of his life, Britain lionized him.

By the time of Mendelssohn’s eighth sojourn in Britain, everyone wanted to meet him, from Charles Dickens and Thackeray, to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. 

Songs Without Words op 102 No 1						
Daniel Barenboim, piano

Piano Concerto No 2 in D minor (Mvts 2 & 3)							
Danae Dörken, piano
Royal Northern Sinfonia 
Lars Vogt, conductor

Piano Trio No 1 (Mvt 1)								
Itzak Perlman, violin
Yo Yo Ma, cello
Emanuel Ax, piano

A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Nos 5 & 7)	
Gewandhausorchester
Ricardo Chailly, conductor

Violin Concerto in E minor (Mvt 1) 						
Nicola Benedetti, violin 						
Academy of St Martin in the Fields
James Macmillan, conductor

Composer of the Week: Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Donald Macleod explores German composer Felix Mendelssohn's experiences in Britain.

This week Donald Macleod explores German composer Felix Mendelssohn's experiences in Britain, considering the mark he left on musical life in these islands.

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Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

Tea at Buckingham Palace

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