

TALICH QUARTET 13
History is nowpaying honours toMendelssohn throughmusicians 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…