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COMPLETE STRING QUARTETS 25
History is now paying honours to Mendelssohn through musicians of the
stature of Kurt Masur, but also through young composers of the post-
modern and neo-tonal movements, who are now setting his genius in its
rightful place.
Of all the ineptitudes uttered against the musician in past decades, the
strangest is no doubt the accusation of being ‘light’. A ‘lightness’ that
apparently makes Mendelssohn’s musical output suspect in the eyes of
specialists, who confuse soberness and simplism, brilliance and futility.
Are these worshippers of the ‘intellect’ capable of measuring the genius of
Offenbach’s Die Rheinnixen, or the depth of a cantata by Rossini? Let us hope
that they will finally listen to
St Paul, Elijah, A Midsummer Night’s Dream
and
other works, with a new ear.
The wheel of
Fortune is turning…