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14 MENDELSSOHN
But there is another myth that has fortunately been demolished: the idea that
personal tragedy was part and parcel of the Romanticmusician. Impoverished and
unhealthy, confined within his schizophrenia, he would become a creator… But
Mendelssohn was born into a prosperous family of Jewish bankers who converted
to Protestantism. He played the piano, the viola and the organ, and was also a
painter and an accomplished sportsman, and he enjoyed travelling (the titles of
some of his symphonic works reflect the places he visited). His short life, only
thirty-eight years, left him little respite, despite his musical output, which was
exceptional both quantitatively and qualitatively.
His writing is fresh and inventive, showing a precocious mastery of the subtlest
of forms, as well as fine precision and an exceptional personality. The influence
of Beethoven and an insatiable curiosity with regard to masters of the past are
perceptible in all hismusic. His chamberworks often showsigns of ‘extra-Germanic’
influences. The colours of Great Britain and Italy stood out clearly in a Germany
whose early signs of nationalism were constantly being exacerbated. He was
European-minded in themodern sense, without flying the flag, but attached to his
cultural past. Let us think for a moment of the subtitle of his Fifth Symphony in D
minor,
Reformation
, and of the power of that tribute from a Jew who had adopted
a Protestant German society, and who carried his idea of cultural integration
through to its conclusion…