The Classical Music Minute

Felix Mendelssohn & Wagner's Contempt

January 16, 2023 Steven Hobé, Composer & Host Season 1 Episode 98
The Classical Music Minute
Felix Mendelssohn & Wagner's Contempt
Show Notes Transcript

Description
Though Felix Mendelssohn was one of the most beloved composers of the Romantic period, 270 of his works remained unpublished until recent years. But why? Take a minute to get the scoop!

Fun Fact
Thanks to the work of The Mendelssohn Project many of his pieces are now being shared along with his story, letters and artworks. The project aims to establish itself as the world's central resource point for all matters pertaining to the prominent Mendelssohn family.

About Steven, Host
Steven is a Canadian composer & actor living in Toronto. Through his music, he creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his music website for more. Member of the Canadian League Of Composers.
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Though Felix Mendelssohn was one of the most beloved composers of the Romantic period, 270 of his works remained unpublished until recent years. 
 
But why? Well, he did indeed die at an unfortunately young age—38. But more importantly he was subject to the rise of anti-Semitism at the time, this fuelled by the propaganda machinery of Nazi Germany. In fact, his name was even added to various lists of forbidden artists. 
 
Mendelssohn was also blackballed by the likes of Richard Wagner, who declared that Mendelssohn’s music “an icon of degenerate decadence”. 
 
At that time, “a majority of Mendelssohn manuscripts were housed in the basement of the Berlin State Library. They were smuggled to Warsaw and Krakow and when the city fell under Nazi control in 1939, they were hurriedly smuggled out again.” Following WWII, the majority of manuscripts remained buried behind the Iron Curtain.