Central to the generally accepted picture of Mendelssohn reception is the notion that his reputation declined sharply in the years following his death in 1847. From the 1960s to the present, Mendelssohn scholars have portrayed a composer who was held in high regard during his lifetime but posthumously downgraded and even derided. As George R. Marek put it, Mendelssohn was 'lifted too high by his contemporaries': thus it was 'inevitable that a reaction should set in. So it did, shortly after his death'. [1] Similarly Eric Werner contends that the fate of Mendelssohn's music after his death was infinitely more controversial than during his life; [2] an oversimplification of this issue is present even in the Preface to The Mendelssohn Companion (2001), where Douglass Seaton remarks that Mendelssohn was 'within his own lifetime perhaps more admired than any other composer in history', [3] and that it was only after his death that opinion about him varied between 'idealising hero worship' and 'vicious denigration by self-conscious progressives'. Significantly, this notion can also be found in the writings of several mid-nineteenth-century commentators. As early as 1850, the pianist and conductor Hans von Bülow identified a decline in Mendelssohn's reputation in similar terms:

Certainly, the years following Mendelssohn's death witnessed aggressive assaults on his reputation on the part of Eduard Krüger[5] and – notoriously – Richard Wagner. [6] Yet a close examination of nineteenth-century German musical discourse reveals that a negative trend can be seen in assessments of the composer from significantly earlier: from the early1840s, influential critics – such as Heinrich Heine, Eduard Hanslick, and Franz Brendel – questioned whether Mendelssohn's pre-eminence was justified. Indeed, many of the themes which shaped the decline of Mendelssohn's posthumous reputation – such as those of genius versus talent, and spontaneity versus calculation deployed by Richard Wagner in his 'Judaism in Music' (1850) – were already articulated by these critics during Mendelssohn's lifetime. Significantly, the situation in the English musical press was markedly different: indeed, to some extent it accounts for the cliché that the decline in Mendelssohn's reputation did not begin until after his death. This article explores why these competing views of the composer emerged, and examines the broader aesthetic and ideological trends underpinning them. [7] FN

The fact that such antithetical assessments of Mendelssohn existed even during his lifetime is suggested in an unlikely source – an obituary of the composer written by the German critic Johann Christian Lobe. Lobe documents Mendelssohn's many visits to England and the enthusiastic manner with which his works were received: from his first visit to London in 1829 during which the public were 'invigorated' by the English premiere of the overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream, to his final visit in April 1847 when Elijah was performed to 'ever-increasing applause'. [8] In addition, Lobe describes the 'spirited reception' of the Second Symphony at the Birmingham music festival in September 1840;[9] the performance of the A minor symphony in London two years later (the impression of which, as Lobe put it, 'surpassed that of all earlier works');[10] and the numerous performances of the oratorios St Paul from 1844 and Elijah from 1846. In summary, Lobe notes that the English public eagerly awaited Mendelssohn's visits, and 'his appearances brought life to all musical spheres'. [11] FN

Significantly, however, Lobe's obituary of Mendelssohn also reveals another side to his reception. He argues that some critics disputed whether Mendelssohn deserved the level of fame that he had attained, questioning the value of his output. A central theme in these critiques was the view that in Mendelssohn's works, as Lobe put it, 'intellect and technical expertise take the place of imagination' (in seinem Werken überwiege Verstand und Wissenschaft der Kunst die Fantasie). [12] While the English critics lavished praise on Mendelssohn, it will become evident that it was primarily German writers who proffered this negative assessment of the composer. FN

See the conquering hero comes! Sound the trumpets, beat the drums!

Meirion Hughes and Robert Stradling assert that 'by 1847, early-Victorian England had long since settled for Mendelssohn with relish'. [13] While this is incontrovertible, their subsequent contention that it was the premiere of Elijah in 1846 which confirmed 'Mendelssohn's complete domination of English musical life' needs to be challenged. [14] Although the event was admittedly represented as momentous by contemporary critics, English performances of Mendelssohn's music throughout the 1840s were in general highly charged, atmospheric occasions. In 1843, the Symphony no. 3 'was received, from beginning to end, with repeated bursts of applause'; [15] similarly, during a performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream (1844), 'Mendelssohn was constantly cheered and applauded to the echo – and he retired amidst a veritable hurricane of approval'. [16] Accordingly, by the time of the first performance of Elijah, Mendelssohn was already a household name in England. Such superlatives strongly uphold Lobe's version of events. Indeed, throughout the 1840s, the pages of The Musical World are filled with references to Mendelssohn's eminence, invariably according him the status of being 'one of the greatest musicians the world ever produced'. [17] FN

Several consistent themes dominated his reception at the hands of the English press. In the following review of Sechs Lieder Op. 57, it was the originality, simplicity and accessibility of these works that the critic found most appealing:

English appraisals of the composer exhibit no trace of the notion that erudition or intellect were higher forces than imagination or inspiration in Mendelssohn's creative endeavours. On the contrary, many critics illustrated how Mendelssohn was fully able to reconcile these features in his works. In 1836 Henry Fothergill Chorley contended that Mendelssohn's works exhibit not merely 'the subtlest intellectual refinement', but also 'the brightest genius'. [19] Other critics also celebrated Mendelssohn's supremacy in all aspects of composition. A review, from 1847, of the Violin Concerto again focuses on its ideal combination of erudition and imagination:

In 1844, the idea of genius was defined in The Musical World as 'an original tone of expressing thoughts, all of which are not compelled to be entirely new, but which are invariably productive of a freshness of effect, from the manner in which they are expressed by the individual genius of the composer. [21] Even in critiques of the composer that do not explicitly acclaim Mendelssohn as a musical genius, it is implicit by virtue of their focus on the themes of freshness and originality. Of course, this definition is not too far removed from the notions of genius common in German philosophical and aesthetic writings,[22] and yet – as will become evident – there was little of this kind of high praise for Mendelssohn from his countrymen in this period. FN

Also representative of English opinion is a lengthy review by George MacFarren of the Third Symphony, which appeared in a series of essays examining great works and their composers. The fact that this work was seen to merit inclusion in this series is significant in itself. MacFarren designates Mendelssohn's Third Symphony as one which will 'raise the author to the highest level of musical repute' and will advance the course of musical art. [23] For him, Mendelssohn is not an outmoded artist but a 'new star in the firmament of genius'. [24] Furthermore, he stressed the depth of human passion and feeling of the work. Following its first performance in 1842, he wrote:

In MacFarren's view, the originality of style which Mendelssohn has achieved in this work makes him the equal of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven in the realm of instrumental music. FN

Mendelssohn clearly enjoyed hero status in England. The following excerpt from an article written shortly after his death neatly encapsulates the English view of the composer, his character and his artistic significance:

Mendelssohn's popularity in England continued for many years after his death. As the German writer Malwida von Meysenbug noted on attending Wagner's second Philharmonic Concert on 26 May 1855, Wagner's unfavourable reception by the English was largely due to the fact that they were 'saturated with a Mendelssohn cult'. [27] FN

Originality versus Epigonism

A different picture can be found in the writings of German critics from this period, who contended that Mendelssohn was no longer at the forefront of artistic developments, and that his style and mentality had been superseded. In 1850, for instance, the aesthetician and critic Eduard Krüger identified an increasing disenchantment with Mendelssohn over the course of the previous decade. Focusing in particular on Mendelssohn's incidental music to Sophocles's Antigone, Krüger notes that the rapturous enthusiasm following its premiere in 1841 was gradually displaced by scepticism and antagonism. Krüger goes on to forecast a trajectory of decline for Mendelssohn's music, predicting that in a few years time the church music will have been entirely eclipsed, leaving only the early lieder and a handful of instrumental music in the repertory:

A more complex picture is presented in Eduard Hanslick's review of Mendelssohn's Third Symphony, which provides a useful basis for a comparison between English and German assessments of the composer. While he compliments Mendelssohn on the remarkable progress made since his First Symphony, and is appreciative of certain compositional features, Hanslick's general impression of this work is not favourable. In contrast to MacFarren's assessment of this symphony as original and highly expressive, Hanslick considers it to be more a product of labour than of inspiration. Indeed, in pursuing this argument, Hanslick uses almost the exact phrase Lobe cited in his obituary: that the triumph of intellect over feeling is a key characteristic of Mendelssohn's output (dieses Ueberwiegen der Verstandesthätigkeit über das Gefühl). Hanslick develops this idea by comparing Mendelssohn with the poet and dramatist Gottfried Ephraim Lessing, arguing that both figures owed their prominence to zealous study rather than to genius. Furthermore, Hanslick argues that while both author and composer possess a deep true feeling, it is more the feeling of philosophers than poets. Similar concerns are evident in the writings of other critics. In a review from 1844 of the Cello Sonata Op. 58, an anonymous critic praised Mendelssohn's compositional technique, yet noted that the work gave little evidence of the composer's emotional involvement or inspiration. [29] Such comments are significant, since when considered from the perspective of contemporary aesthetics, it is evident that both this critic and Hanslick regarded Mendelssohn as deficient in an attribute regarded as essential to genius. In commenting on the philosophical nature of Mendelssohn's artistry, Hanslick appears to share the views of Hegel, who considered such one-sided calculation to be inimical to art. In Hegel's view, art must be the product of genius in a state of inspiration; while the genuine artist must utilise both his intellect and innermost soul in his creative endeavours, reflection and technical expertise alone cannot produce great art. [30] Viewed from this perspective, it is evident that Hanslick's veiled comments represent a serious challenge to Mendelssohn's status as the leading musical figure of the day: he denies Mendelssohn an attribute that English critics bestowed on him at every opportunity:

The music criticism of the poet Heinrich Heine expresses in a more vehement form Hanslick's reservations about Mendelssohn. In Lutetia (1844) Heine argues that the defining feature of Mendelssohn's music is overcalculation; this feature, the product of insincerity, is reflected in Mendelssohn's excessive dependence on classical models. [32] In a report from 1844, he criticises the manufactured nature of Mendelssohn's music, arguing that the finely crafted externals are like empty husks, products of indifference rather than authentic expression:

Several of the themes articulated by Hanslick and Heine are also present in the writings of Robert Schumann and his successor as editor of the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, Franz Brendel. As with Heine, Brendel stresses that conscious effort and imitation are Mendelssohn's hallmarks, as well as the absence of emotional involvement. But both Brendel and Schumann lay greater store on Mendelssohn's contribution to the development of music, questioning whether his works confronted the challenge posed by Beethoven's symphonies. In commenting on Mendelssohn's Third Symphony, Schumann argued that 'it has nothing of the traditional symphonic afflatus, nothing of the customary large-scaled breadth, nothing that might suggest a composer set on outdoing Beethoven'. [34] A different historical perspective underpinned Brendel's critique, in which a theme emerges that was subsequently to have a devastating impact on Mendelssohn's reputation: the notion that his music represented the final remnant of an earlier artistic and political era, an art that was now superseded and irrelevant. Crucial to this view was Brendel's rejection of the aesthetic that informed Mendelssohn's composing. Brendel argues that Mendelssohn was concerned merely with corresponding to a classical idea of beauty, ignoring the demand for a progressive art that expressed the modern world-view. Brendel had a very specific idea of how composers should respond to the concerns of the present: 'the task of art is just as much to portray the epoch in its struggle, and to give expression to the highest forces that propel it forward. Mendelssohn has the advantages of the older classical tendency; through this classicity he became the man of the times, but we are also justified in criticising his lack of modern sensibility'. [35] FN

It has been revealed through this article that Mendelssohn's music experienced very different responses in the hands of English and German critics. Possible explanations for these opposing attitudes towards his output still need to be resolved. It is apparent from the many English appraisals of Mendelssohn cited, that judgements of his works centre on their emotional effect. Critical judgements were based primarily on the level of enthusiasm of the audience. It seems, therefore, that, for the English, music did not have any higher goal than as an object of delectation. Indeed, Charles Burney's assertion in 1789 that music was 'an innocent luxury, unnecessary, indeed, to our existence, but a great improvement and gratification of the sense of hearing' [36] is still prevalent during Mendelssohn's lifetime. In contrast Germany had – since the early nineteenth century – witnessed widespread efforts to assert the social value of serious music, a process culminating in the demands of the 1840s that it become a primary source of national renewal. For critics like Marx and Brendel, this task could only be fulfilled by a progressive art fully reconciled with the strivings of the age. Adolf Bernhard Marx, in a classic statement of this perspective in The Music of the Nineteenth Century and its Culture (1855), argued that 'enjoyment and a feeling of happiness are no criterions of progress; in art as in every other concern of the spirit, a higher perception is the only proof of advance'. [37] For both Marx and Brendel, Mendelssohn's music was inimical to this new aesthetic. On the contrary, it served as a symbol of the aspects of German musical culture that stood in the way of progress. FN

Footnotes

This article is a revised version of a paper given at the RMA Research Students' Conference in January 2003 at the University of Salford. Unless otherwise indicated, all translations are my own.

[1] George R. Marek, Gentle Genius: The Story of Felix Mendelssohn, (New York: Thomas Y. Cromwell and Co., 1972), p. 325. Back
[2] Eric Werner, Mendelssohn: A New Image of the Composer and his Age, trans. Dika Newlin (London: Free Press of Glencoe, 1963), p. 504. Back
[3] Douglass Seaton (ed.), The Mendelssohn Companion (Southport: Greenwood Press, 2001), Preface, p. xi. Back
[4] Hans von Bülow, 'Zweite Symphonie-Soireé der königl. Capelle' (1850), Ausgewählte Schriften: 1850-1892, ed. Marie von Bülow, (2nd edn, Leipzig: Breitkopf and Härtel, 1911), p. 10: 'Man hat Mendelssohn in seinem Leben überschätzt; keinem Künstler ist je Alles so von Statten gegangen, keiner hat bei seinen Lebzeiten so viel Zeichen der Verehrung und des Enthusiasmus von allen Seiten erhalten . . . Jetzt, nach seinem Tode, unterschätzt man ihn, und nichtswürdige Menschen, die ihm im Leben auf alle Art geschmeichelt, fängen jetzt an, seine Verdienste zu verkleinern und ihm mit böswilliger Gehässigkeit aus Neid in der öffentlichen Meinung herabzusetzen.' Back
[5] See Eduard Krüger, 'F. Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Drei Psalmen (2. 43. 22.) Opus 78', Neue Berliner Musikzeitung 4 (1850), pp. 3-5. Back
[6] See Richard Wagner, 'Das Judentum in der Musik' (1850), Gesammelte Schriften und Dichtungen, ed. Wolfgang Golther (Leipzig: Bong and Co., [1913]), vol. V, pp. 66-85. Back
[7] While this article focuses on the competing views of the composer in the English and German press, the situation in French criticism from this period in many ways mirrors the negative German trends. See Katherine Ellis, Music Criticism in Nineteenth-Century France: La Revue et Gazette musicale de Paris, 1834-80 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), pp. 134-41. Back
[8] Johann Christian Lobe, 'Nekrolog Dr Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy', Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung (52), pp. 897-914 (899-900). Back
[9] Ibid., p. 900. Back
[10] Ibid., p. 902. Back
[11] Ibid., p. 902. Back
[12] Ibid., p. 907: 'Die Welt duldet aber solche entschieden Erfolge bei Lebzeiten der Künstler nicht gern, und wenn sie die Ruhm nicht wegdisputieren kann, so versucht sie's mit dem Verdienst. So z. B. ist ausgesprochen worden, in seinem Werken überwiege Verstand und Wissenschaft der Kunst die Fantasie.' Back
[13] Meirion Hughes and Robert Stradling, The English Musical Renaissance 1840-1940: Constructing a National Music (2nd edn, Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 2001), p. 8. Back
[14] Ibid., p. 14. Back
[15] Anon., 'Thursday June 22', The Musical World 18 (1843), pp. 211-12 (211). Back
[16] Anon., 'Thursday May 30', The Musical World 19 (1844), pp. 179-80 (180). Back
[17] 'Q.', 'Thursday February 15', The Musical World 19 (1844), p. 49. Back
[18] Anon., 'Six Songs with Pianoforte Accompaniment Op 57', The Musical World 19 (1844), pp. 75-77 (76). Back
[19] Henry Fothergill Chorley, 'The Liverpool Musical Festival: Mendelssohn's New Oratorio', Athenaeum (1836), p. 739, as quoted in Hughes and Stradling, The English Musical Renaissance, p. 12. Back
[20] Anon., 'The Philharmonic Concerts', The Musical World 22 (1847), pp. 181-3 (183). Back
[21] 'Q.', 'Pot Pourri', The Musical World, 19 (1844), pp. 157-60 (160). Back
[22] See Immanuel Kant, Critique of Judgement (1790), trans. Werner S. Pluhar (Indianapolis and Cambridge: Hackett, 1987), pp. 181-188; and Georg Wilhelm Friederich Hegel, Aesthetics: Lectures on Fine Art (pub. 1835), trans. T. M. Knox (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1975), pp. 281-298. Back
[23] George MacFarren, 'Symphony in A Minor', The Musical World 17 (1842), pp. 185-7 (185). Back
[24] Ibid., p. 186. Back
[25] Ibid. Back
[26] 'D.', 'Letters from Paris', The Musical World, 22 (1847), pp. 731-2 (732). Back
[27] Stewart Spencer, Wagner Remembered (London and New York: Faber and Faber, 2000). Back
[28] Eduard Krüger, 'Zur Kritik Mendelssohn's', Neue Berliner Musikzeitung, 11 (1850), 81-3 (83): 'Wie gings vor wenigen Jahren? Alle Blätter jubelten über die Antigone und deren Aufnahme bei den aufgeklärten Publikum in Berlin, während ganz leise ein paar Sonderlinge flüsterten, das Ding wäre verdammt langweilig, man ginge nur aus Rücksichten hin . . . Wenige Jahre drauf sagte man's auf öffentlich . . . Es ist hochmüthig, den Weissager zu spielen. Nur für unsere kurze Gegenwart, wenn wir noch ein Menschenalter zusammen leben, da möchst ich weissagen-und wenn mich die Zeit widerlegt, öffentlich widerrufen: Mendelssohn's Kirchenwerke werden anch einem Menschenalter verklungen sein. Beethoven ist seit einem, Mozart seit zwei Menschenaltern geschieden-Niemand nennt sie veraltet, sie wandeln mitten unter uns. Von dem sanften jungfräulichen Felix werden die süssen Jugendlieder bleiben, die sind unsterblich: ausserdem wohl einige der grossartigen Instrumentationen, nicht alle; von den sogennanten Kirchensachen Weniges oder Nichts. Lassen wir das Schlusswort der Zeit!' Back
[29] Anon., 'Sonate für Pianoforte und Violoncell. Op. 58', Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung 46 (1844), 149-50 (149). Back
[30] Georg Wilhelm Friederich Hegel, Aesthetics: Lectures on Fine Art (pub. 1835) trans. T. M. Knox, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1975), pp. 281-298. Back
[31] Eduard Hanslick, 'Erstes Konzert des Konservatoriums' (1845), Sämtliche Schriften, ed. Dietmar Strauß (Vienna: Böhlau, 1993), vol. I/i, pp. 23-4: 'Man muß erstaunen über den gewaltigen Fortschritt des Meisters von seiner 1sten Symphonie zu der genannten in A-moll . . .Deßgleichen ist die Instrumentirung ungemein kunstvoll und effektvoll, im Scherzo wahrhaftig üppig . . . Daß jedoch auch die neue Symphonie mehr ein Produckt kunstvoller Arbeit, als unmittelbarer Begeisterung ist, darf uns bei einem Werke F. Mendelssohn's nicht befremden, dieses Ueberwiegen der Verstandesthätigkeit über das Gefühl ist mit des Komponisten Individualität unzertrennbar verwachsen . . . Man hat G. E. Lessing treffend den 'Dichter des Verstandes' geheißen, ich möchte Felix Mendelssohn den Lessing der Musik nennen. Wie Lessing, so hat auch Mendelssohn nicht sowol durch ein außergewöhnliches Genie, als durch unablässiges Studium und bewunderungswürdigen Fleiß es zu der Höhe gebracht, die er jetzt behauptet.' Back
[32] Heinrich Heine, Lutetia (1844), Sämtliche Schriften, ed. Karl Heinz Stahl, 12 vols. (Frankfurt am Main: Ullstein, 1981), vol. IX, pp. 396-400. Back
[33] Heine, 'Musikalische Saison' (1844), Sämtliche Schriften, vol. IX, pp. 529-30, as translated in James Garratt, Palestrina and the German Romantic Imagination: Interpreting Historicism in Nineteenth-Century Music (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), p. 91: 'Mendelssohn bietet uns immer Gelegenheit, über die höchsten Probleme Ästhetik nachzudenken. Namentlich werden wir bei ihm immer an die große Frage erinnert: was ist der Unterschied zwischen Kunst und Lüge? Wir bewundern bei diesem Meister zumeist sein großes Talent für Form, für Stilistik, seine Begabnis sich das Außerordentlichste anzueignen, seine reizend schöne Faktur, sein feines Eidechsenohr, seine zarten Fühlhörner und seine ernsthafte, ich möchte fast sagen passionierte indifferenz. Suchen wir in einer Schwesterkunst nach einer analogen Erscheinung, so finden wir sie diesmal in der Dichtkunst, und sie heißt Ludwig Tieck. Auch dieser Meister wußte immer das Vorzüglichste zu reproduzieren, sei es schreibend, oder vorlesend, er verstand sogar das Naïve zu manchen . . . . Dem begabterern Mendelssohn würde es schon eher gelingen, etwas ewig Bleibendes zu schaffen, aber schaffen, aber nicht auf dem Boden, wo zunächst Wahrheit und Leidenschaft verlangt wird.' Back
[34] Robert Schumann 'Mendelssohn's "Scottish" Symphony' (1842) trans. in Henry Pleasants, Schumann on Music: A Selection from the Writings (New York: Dover, 1965), pp. 180-81. Back
[35] Franz Brendel, 'Robert Schumann with Reference to Mendelssohn-Bartholdy and the Development of Modern Music in General' (1845), trans. Susan Gillespie, in R. Larry Todd (ed.), Mendelssohn and his World (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991), p. 347. Back
[36] Charles Burney, A General History of Music, from the Earliest Ages to the Present Period, 4 vols., (London: G. T. Foulis and Co., 1789), Preface, p. 21. Back
[37] Adolf Bernhard Marx, The Music of the Nineteenth-Century and its Culture: Method of Musical Instruction, trans. August Heinrich Wehrhan (London: Robert Cox, 1855) p. 52. Back

© Sinéad Dempsey, 2004

BPM Volume 6