Felix Grundy
13th United States Attorney General
In office July 5, 1838 – January 10, 1840
President	Martin Van Buren
Preceded by	Benjamin F. Butler
Succeeded by	Henry D. Gilpin
United States Senator from Tennessee
In office October 19, 1829 – July 4, 1838
Preceded by	John Eaton
Succeeded by	Ephraim H. Foster
In office December 14, 1839 – December 19, 1840
Preceded by	Ephraim H. Foster
Succeeded by	Alfred O. P. Nicholson
Chief Justice of the Kentucky Court of Appeals
In office 1807–1808
Preceded by	Thomas Todd
Succeeded by	Ninian Edwards
Personal details
Born	September 11, 1777 Berkley County, Virginia
Died	December 19, 1840(1840-12-19) (aged 63) Nashville, Tennessee
Political party	Democratic-Republican Democratic
Spouse(s)	Ann Phillips Rodgers
Signature

Felix Grundy (September 11, 1775^[1] – December 19, 1840) was a U.S. Congressman and U.S. Senator from Tennessee who also served as the 13th Attorney General of the United States.

Biography[link]

Born in Berkeley County, Virginia (now Berkeley County, West Virginia), he moved to Brownsville, Pennsylvania, and then Kentucky with his parents. He was educated at home and at the Bardstown Academy in Bardstown, Kentucky.^[2] He then studied law and was admitted to the Kentucky bar and commenced practice in Springfield, Kentucky in 1799.^[2]

In 1799, Grundy was chosen to represent Washington County at the convention which drafted the second Kentucky Constitution.^[2] From 1800 to 1802, he represented Washington County in the Kentucky House of Representatives.^[2] He then moved to Nelson County, which he represented in the Kentucky House from 1804 to 1806.^[2] On December 10, 1806, he was commissioned an associate justice on the Kentucky Court of Appeals.^[2] He was elevated to Chief Justice of the court on April 11, 1807.^[2] Later that year, he resigned and moved to Nashville, Tennessee, where he again took up the practice of law.^[2]

He was elected as a Republican to the 12th and 13th Congresses and served from March 4, 1811, until his resignation in 1814.

He then became a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives from 1819 to 1825, and in 1820 was commissioner to settle the boundary line (state line) between Tennessee and Kentucky. He was elected as a Jacksonian in 1829 to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy in the term ending March 4, 1833, caused by the resignation of John H. Eaton to join the Cabinet of President Andrew Jackson; reelected in 1832 and served from October 19, 1829, to July 4, 1838, when he resigned to accept a Cabinet position. During this time he served as chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads (21st through 24th Congresses), U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary (24th and 25th Congresses).

He entered the Cabinet when he was appointed Attorney General of the United States by President Martin Van Buren in July 1838. He resigned the post in December 1839, having been elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate on November 19, 1839, to fill the vacancy in the term commencing March 4, 1839, caused by the resignation of Ephraim Foster; the question of his eligibility to election as Senator while holding the office of Attorney General of the United States having been raised, he resigned from the Senate on December 14, 1839, and was reelected the same day, serving from December 14, 1839, until his death in Nashville, almost a year to the day later. During this stint in the upper house of the U.S. Congress he served as chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Revolutionary Claims in the 26th Congress.

He is interred in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Nashville, Tennessee. There are four Grundy Counties, including the one in Tennessee, named in his honor.

Grundy was a mentor to future President James K. Polk. Polk purchased Grundy's home called "Grundy Place" and changed the name to "Polk Place". He lived and died there after his presidency. It was demolished in 1901.

Further reading[link]

• Baylor, Orville W. (April 1942). "Felix Grundy, 1777-1840". Filson Club Historical Quarterly 16 (2). http://connect1.ajaxdocumentviewer.com/viewerajax.php?tA99owdPovN0GssluoouqoP1a10IbfO7FqZndCR7LK5Elf2gz9aAElalZSi4hMcRq1zO%2FQBGk%2FlChFoAd4C9tYU5vchn3X03HrskdehD15zwt8KilzLO7MApxDb9lgLihn4Xt0lr47Mll%2F%2BOTE9OStpojs84B7YlIjlxvDg1LP7DU0RAeXawCpG%2FuApj1cagjIa9SFOcfX45d0VVgJ9QQTeB2mczdQP5Mj%2Fsu%2BSzrUGnKHcR5jdwx%2F9txCrB9YpXyJwqq1cjWkxxlbijsRWzj3ojzQq8q23y30%2FtLOrL1zu1xeTTnURlasyXUjaPnDYtttRFgzIRGILiRqpLSKjdixAypDTuddsFbKPZuvzgCVtovGISwkHfs1MN8E2IfB7mWHAiBTYWbhMH887r6smCSAytgi8BzMkWOP1lG7kpDOI%3D. Retrieved 2011-12-06. 
• Heller III, J. Roderick (2010). Democracy's Lawyer: Felix Grundy of the Old Southwest. Baton Rouge: LSU Press. ISBN 978-0-8071-3588-4. 

Notes[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Biographical Cyclopedia of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Chicago, Illinois: J.M. Gresham Company. 1896. http://www.archive.org/stream/cu31924028804122. 

External links[link]

• Felix Grundy at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Allen, William B. (1872). A History of Kentucky: Embracing Gleanings, Reminiscences, Antiquities, Natural Curiosities, Statistics, and Biographical Sketches of Pioneers, Soldiers, Jurists, Lawyers, Statesmen, Divines, Mechanics, Farmers, Merchants, and Other Leading Men, of All Occupations and Pursuits. Bradley & Gilbert. pp. 351–352. http://books.google.com/books?id=s_wTAAAAYAAJ. Retrieved 2008-11-10. 

v t e United States Attorneys General Randolph Bradford Lee Lincoln Breckinridge Rodney Pinkney Rush Wirt Berrien Taney Butler Grundy Gilpin Crittenden Legaré Nelson Mason Clifford Toucey Johnson Crittenden Cushing Black Stanton Bates Speed Stanbery Evarts Hoar Akerman Williams Pierrepont Taft Devens MacVeagh Brewster Garland Miller Olney Harmon McKenna Griggs Knox Moody Bonaparte Wickersham McReynolds Gregory Palmer Daugherty Stone Sargent W D Mitchell Cummings Murphy Jackson Biddle T C Clark McGrath McGranery Brownell Rogers Kennedy Katzenbach W R Clark J N Mitchell Kleindienst Richardson Saxbe Levi Bell Civiletti Smith Meese Thornburgh Barr Reno Ashcroft Gonzales Mukasey Holder

v t e United States Senators from Tennessee Class 1 Cocke A. Jackson Smith J. Anderson Campbell Eaton Grundy Foster Grundy Nicholson Foster Turney Jones Johnson Patterson Brownlow Johnson Key Bailey H. Jackson Whitthorne Bate Frazier Lea McKellar Gore, Sr. Brock III Sasser Frist Corker Class 2 Blount J. Anderson Cocke Smith Whiteside Campbell Wharton Williams A. Jackson White A. Anderson Jarnagin Bell Nicholson Fowler Cooper Harris Turley Carmack Taylor Sanders Webb Shields Tyson Brock I Hull Bachman Berry Stewart Kefauver Walters Bass Baker Gore, Jr. Mathews Thompson Alexander

v t e Chairmen of the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary Chase • Crittenden • Burrill • Smith • Van Buren • Berrien • Rowan • Marcy • Wilkins • Clayton • Grundy • Wall • Berrien • Ashley • Butler • Bayard • Trumbull • Edmunds • Thurman • Edmunds • Hoar • Pugh • Hoar • Platt • Clark • Culberson • Nelson • Brandegee • Cummins • Norris • Ashurst • Van Nuys • McCarran • Wiley • McCarran • Langer • Kilgore • Eastland • Kennedy • Thurmond • Biden • Hatch • Leahy • Hatch • Leahy • Hatch • Specter • Leahy

v t e Cabinet of President Martin Van Buren (1837–1841) Vice President Richard M. Johnson (1837–1841) Secretary of State John Forsyth (1837–1841) Secretary of the Treasury Levi Woodbury (1837–1841) Secretary of War Joel R. Poinsett (1837–1841) Attorney General Benjamin F. Butler (1837–1838) Felix Grundy (1838–1840) Henry D. Gilpin (1837–1841) Postmaster General Amos Kendall (1837–1840) John M. Niles (1840–1841) Secretary of the Navy Mahlon Dickerson (1837–1838) James K. Paulding (1838–1841)

Michael Keaton
Keaton at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival
Born	Michael John Douglas (1951-09-05) September 5, 1951 (age 60) Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Nationality	American
Education	Montour High School
Alma mater	Kent State
Occupation	Actor, comedian, singer, dancer
Years active	1975–present
Spouse	Caroline McWilliams (1982–1990)
Partner	Courteney Cox (1989–1995)

Michael John Douglas (born September 5, 1951), better known by the stage name Michael Keaton, is an American actor known for his early comedic roles, most notably his performance as the title character of Tim Burton's Beetlejuice (1988). Keaton is also famous for his dramatic portrayal of Bruce Wayne/Batman in Tim Burton's Batman (1989) and Batman Returns (1992). He has since appeared in various other films, including Pixar's Cars (2006) and Toy Story 3 (2010).

Early life[link]

Keaton, the youngest of seven children, was born in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania,^[1] and lived in Robinson Township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. His father, George A. Douglas, worked as a civil engineer and surveyor, and his mother, Leona Elizabeth (née Loftus), a homemaker, came from a Scots-Irish community in McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania.^[2][3][4][5] Keaton was raised in a large Catholic family^[6][7] and attended Montour High School in Pennsylvania. He studied speech for two years at Kent State before dropping out and moving to Pittsburgh.

Career[link]

Early career[link]

An unsuccessful attempt at comedy led Keaton to working as a TV cameraman at public television station WQED (TV) in Pittsburgh. Keaton first appeared on TV in the Pittsburgh-based public television programs, including "Where the Heart Is" and Mister Rogers' Neighborhood (1975), as one of the "Flying Zucchini Brothers."^[8] He also served as a full-time production assistant on the show.^[9] (In 2004, following Fred Rogers' death, Keaton hosted the PBS memorial tribute program, Fred Rogers: Everybody's Favorite Neighbor.) Keaton also worked as an actor in Pittsburgh theatre; he played the role of Rick in the Pittsburgh premiere of David Rabe's Sticks and Bones with the Pittsburgh Poor Players.^[10]

Keaton left Pittsburgh and moved to Los Angeles to begin auditioning for various TV parts. He popped up in various popular TV shows including Maude and The Mary Tyler Moore Hour. Around this time Keaton decided to use an alternative surname to avoid confusion with well-known actor Michael Douglas and daytime host Mike Douglas, as well as satisfying SAG rules, and after reading an article on actress Diane Keaton, he decided on "Michael Keaton."

His next key break was working alongside James Belushi in the short-lived comedy series Working Stiffs, which showcased his comedic talent and led to a co-starring role in the comedy Night Shift directed by Ron Howard. His role as the hilariously fast-talking schemer Bill "Blaze" Blazejowski alongside Henry Winkler's nerdish morgue attendant earned Keaton some critical acclaim, and he scored leads in the subsequent comedy hits Mr. Mom, Johnny Dangerously, and Gung Ho.

Keaton's role as the title character in Tim Burton's 1988 horror-comedy Beetlejuice, which co-starred Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis, Catherine O'Hara, and Winona Ryder, earned Keaton widespread acclaim and boosted him to movieland's A-list. He originally turned down the title role in Beetlejuice but later reconsidered. Keaton now considers Beetlejuice his favorite of his own films.  That same year, Keaton also gave an acclaimed dramatic performance as a drug-addicted businessman in Clean and Sober. Newsweek featured him in a story during this time.

Batman[link]

Michael Keaton's career was given another major boost when he was again cast by Tim Burton, this time as the title comic book superhero of the 1989 blockbuster Batman. Burton cast him because he thought that Keaton was the only actor who could believably portray someone who has the kind of darkly obsessive personality that the character demands.^[11] Warner Bros. received thousands of letters of complaint by fans commenting that Keaton was the wrong choice to portray Batman, given his prior work in comedies and the fact that he lacked the suave, handsome features and tall, muscular physicality often attributed to the character in the comic books.^[12] However, Keaton's dramatic performance earned widespread acclaim from critics and audiences alike,^[13] and Batman became one of the most successful films of the year.^[14]

According to Les Daniels' book Batman: The Complete History, Keaton wasn't surprised when he was first considered as Batman, as he initially believed the film would be similar to the 1960s TV series starring Adam West. It was only after Burton introduced Keaton to Frank Miller's comic book The Dark Knight Returns that Keaton really understood the dark and brooding side of Batman that he portrayed to much fan approval.^[15] Keaton later reprised his role in the sequel Batman Returns (1992), which was another critically acclaimed success, though also controversial for being darker than the previous film.^[16]

He was initially set to return again for Warner Bros.' third Batman film, even going as far as to show up for costume fitting. However, when Burton was dropped as director of the film, Keaton left the franchise. He was reportedly dissatisfied with the screenplay approved by the new director, Joel Schumacher, which Keaton considered to be too light-hearted in tone. According to the A&E Biography episode on Keaton, after he had refused the first time (after meetings with Schumacher), Warner Bros. offered him $15,000,000, but Keaton steadfastly refused.^[17] He was subsequently replaced by Val Kilmer in Batman Forever (1995) and by George Clooney in Batman & Robin (1997). While Batman Forever was more commercially successful than Batman Returns, Batman & Robin was critically panned and failed to outgross any of the previous films. The franchise was then given a break until the release of Batman Begins (2005), a reboot directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Christian Bale, which returned Batman to the darker atmosphere that Burton and Keaton's films had similarly featured.

Later career[link]

Keaton remained in demand during the 1990s, appearing in a wide range of films including Pacific Heights, One Good Cop, My Life, and the star-studded Shakespearian story Much Ado About Nothing. He also starred in another Ron Howard film, The Paper, as well as with Andie MacDowell in Multiplicity and twice in the same role, Elmore Leonard character Agent Ray Nicolette, in Jackie Brown and Out of Sight. The actor also made the family holiday movie Jack Frost and the thriller Desperate Measures.

Keaton starred as a political candidate's speechwriter in 1994's Speechless with Geena Davis (his co-star in Beetlejuice) and Christopher Reeve (who, like Keaton, also portrayed a famous DC Comics superhero on film; Superman).

Keaton at the 2004 Dallas Comic Con

Since 2000, Keaton has appeared in several films with mixed success including Live From Baghdad (for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe award), First Daughter, White Noise, and Herbie: Fully Loaded. While he continued to receive good notices from the critics (particularly for Jackie Brown), he was not able to re-approach the box-office success of Batman until the release of Disney/Pixar's Cars (2006), in which he voiced the character Chick Hicks. On New Years Day of 2004, he hosted the PBS TV special Mr. Rogers: America's Favorite Neighbor. It was released by Triumph Marketing LLC on DVD September 28 that year.

In 2006, Keaton starred in an independent film called Game 6, a semi-thriller based around the infamous 1986 World Series bid by the Boston Red Sox. He had a cameo in the Tenacious D short film, Time Fixers, an iTunes exclusive. The 9-minute film was released to coincide with Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny. Keaton was announced to be the lead in Media 8 Entertainment's film Reaper, a supernatural thriller. He reportedly agreed to star as John Target in the Matt Evans scripted No Rule To Make Target, and he has directed a drama, The Merry Gentleman.

Keaton reportedly was cast as Dr. Jack Shephard in the series Lost, with the understanding that the role of Jack would be a brief one. Once the role was retooled to be a long-running series regular, Keaton withdrew. The part was then given to actor Matthew Fox. The show ran for six seasons, with the Jack Shephard role continuing throughout.^[18][19]

Keaton starred in the 2007 TV mini-series The Company, set during the Cold War, in which he portrayed the real-life CIA counterintelligence chief James Jesus Angleton. The role garnered Keaton a 2008 SAG nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries. The Company also starred Chris O'Donnell, who portrayed Batman's crime fighting sidekick Robin (who was absent from the Batman films Keaton starred in) in Batman Forever and Batman & Robin.^[20]

Keaton most recently provided the voice of Ken in Toy Story 3 (2010). The movie received overwhelmingly positive acclaim and grossed over $1 billion worldwide, making it one of the most financially successful films ever.^[21] He announced in June 2010 his interest in returning for a Beetlejuice sequel.^[22] He also played the minor role of Captain Gene Mauch in the comedy The Other Guys.

In February 2011, Keaton was the subject of a light-hearted spoof at The Onion, which jested that 87 percent of feature-length motion pictures would be significantly improved by the addition of the 59-year-old film and television actor.^[23]

Personal life[link]

Keaton was married to actress Caroline McWilliams from 1982 until 1990. They have one son, Sean Maxwell (born May 27, 1983). He also had a six-year relationship with actress Courteney Cox from 1989 to 1995.^[24]

Keaton is a big Pittsburgh Pirates fan being a native from the area. He even went so far as to negotiate a break in his Batman movie contract in case the Pirates made the playoffs that year. He is also a die hard Pittsburgh Steelers fan.^[25] An avid fisherman, Keaton can be seen on the saltwater fishing series Buccaneers & Bones on Outdoor Channel, along with Tom Brokaw, Zach Gilford, Thomas McGuane, and Yvon Chouinard.^[26]

Filmography[link]

Film[link]

Television[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Michael Keaton at the Internet Movie Database
• Story on Michael Keaton and his hometown Pittsburgh Pirates opening day controversy

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (February 2011)

Felix Dennis (born 1947) is a British publisher, poet, and philanthropist. His company, Dennis Publishing, pioneered computer and hobbyist magazine publishing in the United Kingdom. In more recent times, the company has added lifestyle titles such as its flagship brand The Week, which is published in the UK, the United States and Australia.

Life and work[link]

Dennis was born in Kingston-upon-Thames in 1947. After leaving Harrow College of Art, Dennis played in R&B bands. ^[1]

Publishing[link]

Dennis started his career as a street seller for the underground counter culture magazine Oz in 1971. The magazine printed a mixture of left-field stories, discussions of drugs, sex and contentious political stories. Dennis was quickly promoted to co-editor and became involved in the longest conspiracy trial in English history over the "School Kids" edition. The editors invited contributions from children, including a sexually explicit drawing of Rupert the Bear. This resulted in a visit from the police and the subsequent arrest of Jim Anderson, Richard Neville and Dennis.^[2] Dennis recorded a single with John Lennon to raise money for a legal defence fund. At the conclusion of the trial, the "Oz Three", defended by John Mortimer, were found not guilty on the charge of “Conspiracy to deprave and corrupt the Morals of the Young of the Realm,” but were convicted of two lesser offences and sentenced to imprisonment. The convictions were later quashed.

Dennis later told author Jonathan Green that on the night before the appeal was heard, the Oz editors were taken to a secret meeting with the Chief Justice, Lord Widgery, who told them that they would be acquitted if they agreed to give up work on Oz. It is alleged that MPs Tony Benn and Michael Foot had interceded on their behalf.

Following acquittal by the Court of Appeal, Dennis went on to found his own magazine publishing company in 1973. Kung Fu monthly became a success, making over £60,000, aided by the rising popularity of martial artist Bruce Lee. The small company managed to break into the US.

Dennis set up Personal Computer World which he later sold to VNU, and established MacUser which he sold to Ziff Davis Publishing in the mid-eighties. In 1987, he co-founded MicroWarehouse, with Peter Godfrey and Bob Bartner, a company that pioneered direct IT marketing via high quality catalogues. Dennis was awarded the Marcus Morris Award in 1991. The computer mail order company eventually went public on the NASDAQ in 1992. At the time had 3500 employees in 13 countries with worldwide sales in 2000 of $2.5 billion. It was sold to a private investment group in January 2000. This created the bulk of Dennis' personal wealth. Dennis launched further successful IT titles Computer Shopper and PC World.

In 1995, Dennis Publishing created Maxim, a title that became the world's biggest selling men's lifestyle magazine and global brand. In 1996, Dennis acquired a stake in what is now the flagship brand The Week which is published in the UK, US and Australia and. as of 2009, translates to a global circulation of over 700,000 (ABC audited). Over the following years it purchased the remainder from its founder Jon O'Connell. 2003 saw the purchase of IFG (I Feel Good) from Loaded founder James Brown. The purchase involved titles Viz, Fortean Times and Bizarre being added to the Dennis Publishing stable.

In June 2007, Dennis sold his US magazine operation which published the magazines Blender, Maxim and Stuff to Alpha Media Group. In 2008, Dennis Publishing established digital magazines iGizmo and iMotor along with Monkey and the purchase of The First Post.

Dennis remains the owner of Dennis Publishing, with headquarters in both London and New York City. It currently holds over 50 magazine titles, digital magazines, websites and mobile sites in the UK including The Week, Monkey, Auto Express, PC Pro and Viz. Its flagship brand The Week is also published in the US and Australia.

Writing[link]

In 1994, Dennis was made a Fellow of the National Library for the Blind in recognition of his continued support for that charity. Accordingly, many of Dennis's books are released in Braille.

In 2001, following illness, Dennis took up poetry. ^[3]Within a year, he wrote his first book of verse A Glass Half Full, published by Hutchinson in the UK. The launch of this book was accompanied by the first of Dennis's UK-wide poetry reading tours entitled “Did I Mention the Free Wine?” Audiences are offered fine French wine from Dennis’s cellar whilst watching Dennis perform his poetry on stage. His poetry has been featured on radio interviews, in the national press and the subject of two major television documentaries.

In October 2003, Dennis appeared with the Royal Shakespeare Company, along with RSC actors, reading from his work at The Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon. With the publication of A Glass Half Full in the US in 2004, Dennis embarked on a fifteen date coast-to-coast tour of the US (including another RSC performance in New York). The same year Lone Wolf, Dennis's second book of verse came out, again accompanied by a fourteen-date UK tour.

In 2006, Dennis wrote a best-seller on how he became a multi-millionaire in How to Get Rich ^[4], published by Ebury Press. As well as anecdotes from his life, the book describes his crack cocaine addiction and admission to spending over $100 million dollars on drugs and women. 2010 saw the release of Dennis's follow-up to wealth creation book, 88 The Narrow Road.^[5]

Three more poetry books have followed, When Jack Sued Jill: Nursery Rhymes for Modern Times, Island of Dreams and Homeless in my Heart, published by Ebury Press. At the end of 2008, Dennis again toured with an eleven-date tour around the UK and Ireland, coinciding with the release of Homeless in my Heart. Both the 2008 and 2010 tours were filmed and a DVD release is expected in the early part of 2011.

Tree planting[link]

Dennis planting the Forest of Dennis, based in Warwickshire in the UK's West Midlands. ^[6]Over the last ten years, Dennis has established a young forest of native deciduous trees, covering one thousand acres with approximately 600,000 saplings planted to date. The forest also includes a small percentage of ancient woodland. Trees include native varieties of oak, ash, lime, beech hornbeam, hazel, field maple, aspen, hawthorn, willow, alder, black poplar, holly, wild cherry, rowan and occasional stands of Scots pine, along with numerous shrubs and bushes. Where possible, saplings are sourced from locally collected seed. The planting of saplings will continue indefinitely with the aim of eventually providing between 10,000 and 20,000 acres. ^[7]The forest will then be opened to the public to enjoy and, as Dennis insists, it will be up to the people to decide the name, saying "the Forest of Dennis is only the name of the charity".

In the media[link]

Dennis is credited with having been the first person to say the word cunt on live British television, on the 7 November, 1970 edition ^[8] of David Frost's The Frost Programme. As a result, most "live" transmissions are delayed by 15 seconds.

Dennis was the subject of Desert Island Discs, hosted by Kirsty Young on BBC Radio 4, first broadcast on 12 August 2007.^[9]

In an interview with Ginny Dougary published in The Times on 2 April 2008 Dennis said that in the early 1980s he had killed a man who had been abusing a woman he knew by pushing him off a cliff; Dennis later said he had been talking "a load of hogwash" whilst drunk.^{[10] [11]}

References[link]

1. ^ Dennis profile on personal website
2. ^ Dennis, Felix (2009-01-28). "The OZ trial: John Mortimer’s finest hour | News & Politics | News & Comment". The First Post. http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/46324,features,the-oz-trial-john-mortimerrsquos-finest-hour. Retrieved 2010-08-13. 
3. ^ "Publisher Felix Dennis' odes to vice and consequences | Video on". Ted.com. http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/publisher_felix_dennis_odes_to_vice_and_consequences.html. Retrieved 2010-08-13. 
4. ^ ISBN 0-09-191265-2
5. ^ 88 The Narrow Road
6. ^ The Forest of Dennis / Heart Of England Forest Project
7. ^ BBC Dennis Profile "From parties to poetry" 20 November 2006
8. ^ 7 November, 1970 edition of David Frost's The Frost Programme
9. ^ Desert Island Discs BBC 12 August 2007
10. ^ "Maxim publisher Felix Dennis: ‘I’ve killed a man’ | Ginny Dougary :: Award-winning journalist and writer". Ginny Dougary. 2008-04-02. http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2008/04/02/maxim-publisher-felix-dennis-ive-killed-a-man/. Retrieved 2010-08-13. 
11. ^ Maxim Publisher Felix Dennis: I've Killed a Man The Times]

External links[link]

• Video interviews with Dennis December 2007 on Access Interviews.com
• BBC Dennis Profile "From parties to poetry" 20 November 2006
• Personal website
• Works by or about Felix Dennis in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Publisher Felix Dennis' odes to vice and consequences on TED.com

v t e British Underground People Stephen Abrams Nicholas Albery Tariq Ali Jim Anderson Edward Barker Syd Barrett Mark Boyle Joe Boyd Barney Bubbles Bob Cobbing Caroline Coon Felix Dennis Robin Farquharson Mick Farren Duggie Fields Germaine Greer Hapshash and the Coloured Coat Jim Haynes Wally Hope John 'Hoppy' Hopkins Michael Horovitz Peter Jenner & Andrew King Mike Lesser Niall McDevitt Tom McGrath John Michell Barry Miles Richard Neville Jeff Nuttall John Peel Aubrey Powell Sid Rawle Craig Sams Gregory Sams Martin Sharp Nicholas Saunders Storm Thorgerson Steve Peregrin Took Alexander Trocchi Heathcote Williams Ubi Dwyer Publications Alternative London Brighton Voice Children of Albion: Poetry of the Underground in Britain The Black Dwarf Friends Gandalf's Garden Gay News Ink International Times The Mersey Sound Oz Schoolkids OZ Peace News Seed - The Journal of Organic Living Spare Rib Bands AMM Arthur Brown Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band Edgar Broughton Band Delivery The Deviants Fairport Convention Family Gong Hawkwind The Incredible String Band Pink Fairies Pink Floyd The Pretty Things The Purple Gang Quintessence Soft Machine Third Ear Band Tomorrow Events International Poetry Incarnation The 14 Hour Technicolour Dream Phun City Windsor Free Festival Other Arts Lab Better Books BIT Compendium Books Games for May Granny Takes a Trip Indica Gallery London Free School London Film-Makers' Co-op Mr. Freedom (London) Release Seed Macrobiotic Restaurant UFO Club See also British Poetry Revival Counterculture English underground Freak scene Youth subculture

Sir David Frost
Frost during an interview with Donald Rumsfeld
Born	David Paradine Frost (1939-04-07) 7 April 1939 (age 73) Tenterden, Kent, England
Nationality	British
Occupation	Television presenter, journalist, comedian, writer
Years active	1961–present
Known for	That Was The Week That Was, Through the Keyhole,Breakfast with Frost, Frost On Sunday (TV-am)
Religion	Methodist
Spouse	Lynne Frederick (1981–82) Lady Carina Fitzalan-Howard (1983–present)

Sir David Paradine Frost, Kt., OBE (born 7 April 1939), is a British journalist, comedian, writer, media personality and daytime TV game show host best known for his two decades as host of Through the Keyhole and serious interviews with various political figures, the most notable being Richard Nixon. Since 2006, he has been hosting the weekly programme Frost Over the World on Al Jazeera English.

Early life[link]

David Paradine Frost was born in Tenterden, Kent, on 7 April 1939 as the son of a Methodist minister of Huguenot descent, the Rev. W. J. Paradine Frost, and his wife Mona, and with two elder sisters.^[1] While living in Gillingham, Kent, he was taught in the Bible class of the Sunday school at his father's church (Byron Road Methodist) by David Gilmore Harvey, and subsequently started training as a Methodist local preacher, which he did not complete. He attended Barnsole Road Primary School in Gillingham, then Gillingham Grammar School and finally Wellingborough Grammar School.^[2] He subsequently won a place at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge, where he graduated with a degree in English. Throughout his school years he was an avid football (soccer) and cricket player,^[1] and was actually offered a contract with Nottingham Forest F.C., which he turned down in order to attend university.^[3]

At Cambridge, he was editor of both the student newspaper, Varsity, and the literary magazine, Granta. He was also secretary of the famous Footlights Drama Society,^[1] which included actors such as Peter Cook and John Bird.

After leaving university, he became a trainee at Associated-Rediffusion and worked for Anglia Television.

[edit] That Was the Week That Was (TW3)

Frost was chosen by writer and producer Ned Sherrin to host a pioneering satirical programme called That Was The Week That Was, alias TW3. This caught the wave of the satire boom in 1960s Britain and became a popular programme. TW3 was the last piece of scheduled programming broadcast by the BBC on a Saturday, and regularly overran its time slot.^{[citation needed]}

After a pilot episode on 10 November 1963, a 30-minute American version of TW3 featuring Frost ran on NBC from 10 January 1964 to May 1965. In 1985, David Frost produced and hosted a television special in the same format, That Was the Year That Was, on NBC.

[edit] After TW3

Frost fronted a number of programmes following the success of TW3, including its immediate successor, Not So Much a Programme, More a Way of Life, which he co-chaired with Willie Rushton and P. J. Kavanagh. More notable was The Frost Report, 1966 and 1967, which launched the television careers of John Cleese, Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett. He signed for Rediffusion, the ITV weekday contractor in London, to produce a "heavier" interview-based show called The Frost Programme. Guests included Sir Oswald Mosley and Rhodesian premier Ian Smith. His memorable dressing-down of insurance fraudster Emil Savundra was generally regarded as the first example of "trial by television" in the UK.

In 1963 a tribute to the recently assassinated President John F. Kennedy on That Was the Week That Was had seen Frost's fame spread to the United States. His 1970 TV special Frost on America featured guests such as Jack Benny and Tennessee Williams.^[4]

From 1969 to 1972, Frost kept his London shows and fronted The David Frost Show on the Group W (U.S. Westinghouse Corporation) television stations in the United States.^[5] In 1977, he met US President Richard Nixon in a series of interviews for American television.

That same year Frost was the executive producer of the Academy Award-nominated The Slipper and the Rose. Frost was an organiser of the Music for UNICEF Concert at the United Nations General Assembly in 1979. Ten years later, Frost was hired as the anchor of the new American tabloid news program Inside Edition. However, he was dismissed after only three weeks, and then-ABC News reporter Bill O'Reilly was recruited in his stead.

During the 1980s, 90s and 2000s, he presented the panel game Through the Keyhole on daytime TV, which featured a long running partnership with Loyd Grossman.

After transferring from ITV, his Sunday morning interview programme Breakfast with Frost ran on the BBC from January 1993 until 29 May 2005. The programme originally began in this format on TV-am in September 1983 as Frost on Sunday until the station lost its franchise at the end of 1992. Later it transferred briefly to BSB before moving to the BBC.

Since then he has worked for Al Jazeera English, presenting a live weekly hour-long current affairs programme, Frost Over the World, which started when the network launched in November 2006. The programme has regularly made headlines with interviewees such as Tony Blair, President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan, Benazir Bhutto and President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua. The programme is produced by the former Question Time editor and Independent on Sunday journalist Charlie Courtauld. He was one of the first to interview the man who authored the historic fatwa on terrorism, Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri.^[6]

During his career as a journalist he became one of Concorde's most frequent fliers, having flown between London and New York an average of 20 times per year for 20 years.^[7][8]

In 2007 Frost hosted a discussion with Libya's dictator Gaddafi as part of the Monitor Group's involvement in the country.^[9]

In 2012, Frost presented a programme on BBC Four called "Frost on Satire", looking at satirical works on television, such as Spitting Image. Celebrities who appeared on the programme included Rory Bremner and Ian Hislop.

Achievements[link]

Frost was instrumental in starting up two important ITV franchises: London Weekend Television in July 1968 and as one of the Famous Five who launched TV-am in February 1983. Ironically,^{[citation needed]} both had plans that were considered highbrow and both suffered launch problems with low audience ratings and financial difficulties that led to outside parties taking large stakes in the companies and significant changes in business strategy before stability was achieved.

On 20 and 21 July 1969, during the British television Apollo 11 coverage, he presented David Frost's Moon Party for LWT, a ten-hour discussion and entertainment marathon from LWT's Wembley Studios, on the night Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. Two of his guests on this programme were British historian A.J.P. Taylor and Sammy Davis, Jr. Taylor was skeptical about the proceedings and believed that the moon landing was actually a mock-up being broadcast from a Hollywood studio.^[10]

Frost started the production company David Paradine Productions, and was also part of a consortium with Richard Branson that failed to acquire three ITV franchises under the CPV-TV name.

Frost's longest television association was with the daytime panel show Through the Keyhole. The programme, produced by his David Paradine Productions company, ran on various channels from 1987 until 2008, with Frost acting as host throughout. To younger generations, Frost is chiefly known for his role on this show, alongside Loyd Grossman.

Frost is the only person to have interviewed eight British prime ministers serving between 1964 and 2010 (Harold Wilson, Edward Heath, James Callaghan, Margaret Thatcher, John Major, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and David Cameron) and the seven US presidents in office between 1969 and 2008 (Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush). He was also the last person to interview Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran.^[11]

He is a patron and former vice-president of the Motor Neurone Disease Association charity, as well as being a patron of the Alzheimer's Research Trust, the Hearing Trust,^[12] East Anglia's Children's Hospices, the Home Farm Trust and the Elton John AIDS Foundation.^[13][14]

After having been in television for 40 years, Frost is worth £200 million.^[15] This valuation includes the assets of his main British company and subsidiaries, plus homes in London and the country.

[edit] Frost/Nixon

Originally a play by Peter Morgan that was developed from a series of interviews, Frost/Nixon was presented both in London and on Broadway. The play was adapted into a motion picture, starring Michael Sheen as David Frost, Frank Langella as Richard Nixon, directed by Ron Howard, and released in 2008. The film was nominated for five Golden Globe awards: Best Motion Picture Drama, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Screenplay and Best Original Score,^[16] as well as five Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Editing.

In February 2009, David Frost was featured on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's (ABC-TV) international affairs programme Foreign Correspondent in a report titled "The World According To Frost", reflecting on his long career and portrayal in the feature film Frost/Nixon.^[17]

Personal life[link]

Before his present marriage, Frost was known for several liaisons with beautiful and famous women, and he is also known for remaining friendly with most of them. In the mid 1960s he dated British actress Janette Scott, between her marriages to songwriter Jackie Rae and singer Mel Tormé; in the early 1970s he was engaged to American actress Diahann Carroll; between 1972 and 1977 he had a relationship with British socialite Caroline Cushing; and in 1981 he married Lynne Frederick, widow of Peter Sellers, but they divorced the following year.^[1] On 19 March 1983 David Frost married Lady Carina Fitzalan-Howard (born 20 February 1952), daughter to the 17th Duke of Norfolk, and they have three sons.^[1]

Selected awards and honours[link]

• 1970: Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE)^[4]
• 1993: Knight Bachelor^[4]
• 1994: Honorary doctoral degree of the Sussex University
• 2005: Fellowship of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts BAFTA
• 2009: Honorary Doctor of Letters degree of the University of Winchester
• 2009: Lifetime Achievement Award at the Emmy Awards

Publications[link]

• "I Gave Them a Sword": Behind the scenes of the Nixon interviews (1978). Published as Frost/Nixon in 2007.
• David Frost's Book of Millionaires, Multimillionaires, and Really Rich People (1984)
• The Rich Tide: Men, Women, Ideas and Their Transatlantic Impact (1986). With Michael Shea.
• An Autobiography. Part 1: From Congregations to Audiences (1993).

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: David Frost

• BBC News Profile of David Frost
• TV Cream on Paradine Productions^{[dead link]}
• Frost's entry at IMDb

Portrait of Mendelssohn by the English miniaturist James Warren Childe (1778–1862), 1839

Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (German pronunciation: [ˈjaːkɔp ˈluːtvɪç ˈfeːlɪks ˈmɛndl̩szoːn baʁˈtɔldi]), born, and generally known in English-speaking countries, as Felix Mendelssohn^{[n 1]} (3 February 1809 – 4 November 1847) was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period.

The grandson of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, Felix Mendelssohn was born into a prominent Jewish family, although initially he was raised without religion and was later baptised as a Lutheran Christian. Mendelssohn was recognised early as a musical prodigy, but his parents were cautious and did not seek to capitalise on his talent.

Early success in Germany, where he also revived interest in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, was followed by travel throughout Europe. Mendelssohn was particularly well received in Britain as a composer, conductor and soloist, and his ten visits there – during which many of his major works were premiered – form an important part of his adult career. His essentially conservative musical tastes, however, set him apart from many of his more adventurous musical contemporaries such as Franz Liszt, Richard Wagner and Hector Berlioz. The Leipzig Conservatoire (now the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig), which he founded, became a bastion of this anti-radical outlook.

Mendelssohn's work includes symphonies, concerti, oratorios, piano music and chamber music. His most-performed works include his Overture and incidental music for A Midsummer Night's Dream, the Italian Symphony, the Scottish Symphony, the overture The Hebrides, his Violin Concerto, and his String Octet. After a long period of relative denigration due to changing musical tastes and anti-Semitism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, his creative originality has now been recognised and re-evaluated. He is now among the most popular composers of the Romantic era.

Life[link]

Childhood[link]

Mendelssohn aged 12 (1821) by Carl Joseph Begas

Felix Mendelssohn was born on 3 February 1809, in Hamburg, at the time an independent city-state,^{[n 2]} in the same house where, a year later, the dedicatee and first performer of his Violin Concerto, Ferdinand David, was to be born. Mendelssohn's father was the banker Abraham Mendelssohn, the son of the German Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn. His mother was Lea Salomon, a member of the Itzig family and the sister of Jakob Salomon Bartholdy.^[1] Mendelssohn was the second of four children; his older sister Fanny also displayed exceptional and precocious musical talent.

The family moved to Berlin in 1811, leaving Hamburg in disguise fearing French revenge for the Mendelssohn bank's role in breaking Napoleon's Continental System blockade.^[2] Abraham and Lea Mendelssohn sought to give their children – Fanny, Felix, Paul and Rebecka – the best education possible. Fanny became a well-known pianist and amateur composer; originally Abraham had thought that she, rather than Felix, would be the more musical. However, at that time, it was not considered proper, by either Abraham or Felix, for a woman to have a career in music, so Fanny remained an active, but non-professional musician. Abraham was also disinclined to allow Felix to follow a musical career until it became clear that he intended seriously to dedicate himself to it.^[3]

Mendelssohn grew up in an intellectual environment. Frequent visitors to the salon organised by his parents at the family's home in Berlin included artists, musicians and scientists, amongst them Wilhelm and Alexander von Humboldt, and the mathematician Gustav Dirichlet (whom Mendelssohn's sister Rebecka would later marry).^[4] Sarah Rothenburg wrote of the household that "Europe came to their living room".^[5]

Felix's surname[link]

Abraham Mendelssohn renounced the Jewish religion; he and his wife deliberately decided not to have Felix circumcised, in contravention of the Jewish tradition.^[6] Felix and his siblings were first brought up without religious education, and were baptised as Lutherans in 1816, at which time Felix took the additional names Jakob Ludwig. Abraham and his wife Lea were baptised in 1822, formally adopting the surname Mendelssohn Bartholdy (which they had used since 1812) for themselves and their children.^[7] The name Bartholdy was added at the suggestion of Lea's brother, Jakob Salomon Bartholdy, who had inherited a property of this name in Luisenstadt and adopted it as his own surname.^[8] Abraham later explained this decision in a letter to Felix as a means of showing a decisive break with the traditions of his father Moses: "There can no more be a Christian Mendelssohn than there can be a Jewish Confucius".^[9] On embarking on his musical career, Felix did not entirely drop the name Mendelssohn as Abraham requested, but in deference to his father signed his letters and had his visiting cards printed using the form 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'.^[10] In 1829, his sister Fanny wrote to him of "Bartholdy [...] this name that we all dislike".^[11]

Career[link]

Musical education[link]

Like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart before him, Mendelssohn was regarded as a child prodigy. He began taking piano lessons from his mother when he was six, and at seven was tutored by Marie Bigot in Paris.^[12] After the family moved to Berlin, all four Mendelssohn children studied piano with Ludwig Berger, who was himself a former student of Muzio Clementi.^[13] From at least May 1819 Felix (and his sister Fanny) studied counterpoint and composition with Carl Friedrich Zelter in Berlin.^[14] This was an important influence on his future career. Zelter had almost certainly been recommended as a teacher by his aunt Sarah Levy, who had been a pupil of W. F. Bach and a patron of C. P. E. Bach. Sarah Levy was a talented keyboard player in her own right, often playing with Zelter's orchestra at the Berlin Singakademie, of which she and the Mendelssohn family were leading patrons. Sarah had formed an important collection of Bach family manuscripts which she bequeathed to the Singakademie; Zelter, whose tastes in music were conservative, was also an admirer of the Bach tradition.^[15] This undoubtedly played a significant part in forming Felix Mendelssohn's musical tastes. His works show his study of Baroque and early classical music. His fugues and chorales especially reflect a tonal clarity and use of counterpoint reminiscent of Johann Sebastian Bach, by whose music he was deeply influenced.^[16]

Early maturity[link]

First page of the manuscript of Mendelssohn's Octet (1825) (now in the US Library of Congress)

Mendelssohn probably made his first public concert appearance at age nine, when he participated in a chamber music concert accompanying a horn duo.^[17] He was also a prolific composer from an early age. As an adolescent, his works were often performed at home with a private orchestra for the associates of his wealthy parents amongst the intellectual elite of Berlin.^[18] Between the ages of 12 and 14, Mendelssohn wrote 12 string symphonies for such concerts. These works were ignored for over a century, but are now recorded and occasionally played in concerts. He wrote his first published work, a piano quartet, by the time he was 13. It was probably Abraham Mendelssohn who procured the publication of Mendelssohn's early piano quartet by the house of Schlesinger. In 1824, the 15-year-old wrote his first symphony for full orchestra, (op. 11 in C minor).

At age 16 Mendelssohn wrote his String Octet in E-flat major, the first work which showed the full power of his genius.^[19] This Octet and his Overture to Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, which he wrote a year later in 1826, are the best-known of his early works. (He later also wrote incidental music for the play, including the famous Wedding March, in 1842). The Overture is perhaps the earliest example of a concert overture^[20] – that is, a piece not written deliberately to accompany a staged performance, but to evoke a literary theme in performance on a concert platform; this was a genre which became a popular form in musical Romanticism.

In 1824 Mendelssohn studied under the composer and piano virtuoso Ignaz Moscheles, who however confessed in his diaries^[21] that he had little to teach him. Moscheles became a close colleague and lifelong friend. 1827 saw the premiere – and sole performance in his lifetime – of Mendelssohn's opera, Die Hochzeit des Camacho. The failure of this production left him disinclined to venture into the genre again.^[22]

Besides music, Mendelssohn's education included art, literature, languages, and philosophy. He had a particular interest in classical literature^[23] and translated Terence's Andria for his tutor Heyse in 1825; Heyse was impressed and had it published in 1826 as a work of "his pupil, F****" [i.e. "Felix" (asterisks as provided in original text)].^[24] This translation also qualified Mendelssohn to study at the Humboldt University of Berlin, where from 1826 to 1829 he attended lectures on aesthetics by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, on history by Eduard Gans and on geography by Carl Ritter.^[25]

Meeting Goethe and conducting Bach[link]

In 1821 Zelter introduced Mendelssohn to his friend and correspondent, the elderly Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who was greatly impressed by the child, leading to perhaps the earliest confirmed comparison with Mozart in the following conversation between Goethe and Zelter:

Musical prodigies ... are probably no longer so rare; but what this little man can do in extemporizing and playing at sight borders the miraculous, and I could not have believed it possible at so early an age." "And yet you heard Mozart in his seventh year at Frankfurt?" said Zelter. "Yes", answered Goethe, " ... but what your pupil already accomplishes, bears the same relation to the Mozart of that time that the cultivated talk of a grown-up person bears to the prattle of a child.^[26]

Mendelssohn was invited to meet Goethe on several later occasions, and set a number of Goethe's poems to music. His other compositions inspired by Goethe include the overture Meeresstille und glückliche Fahrt (Calm Sea and a Prosperous Voyage, Op. 27, 1828) and the cantata Die erste Walpurgisnacht (The First Walpurgis Night, Op. 60, 1832).

In 1829, with the backing of Zelter and the assistance of actor Eduard Devrient, Mendelssohn arranged and conducted a performance in Berlin of Bach's St Matthew Passion. Four years previously his grandmother, Bella Salomon, had given him a copy of the manuscript of this (by then all-but-forgotten) masterpiece.^[27] The orchestra and choir for the performance were provided by the Berlin Singakademie. The success of this performance – the first since Bach's death in 1750 – was an important element in the revival of J. S. Bach's music in Germany and, eventually, throughout Europe.^[28] It earned Mendelssohn widespread acclaim at the age of 20. It also led to one of the few references which Mendelssohn made to his origins: "To think that it took an actor and a Jew's son to revive the greatest Christian music for the world!"^[29][30]

Over the next few years Mendelssohn traveled widely, including making his first visit to England in 1829, and also visiting amongst other places Vienna, Florence, Milan, Rome and Naples, in all of which he met with local and visiting musicians and artists. These years proved the germination for some of his most famous works, including the Hebrides Overture and the Scottish and Italian symphonies.^[31]

Düsseldorf[link]

On Zelter's death in 1832, Mendelssohn had hopes of succeeding him as conductor of the Berlin Singakademie. However, at a vote in January 1833 he was defeated for the post by the less distinguished Karl Friedrick Rungenhagen. This may have been because of Mendelssohn's youth, and fear of possible innovations; it was also suspected by some to be attributable to his Jewish ancestry.^[32] Following this rebuff, Mendelssohn divided most of his professional time over the next few years between Britain and Düsseldorf, where he was appointed musical director (his first paid post as a musician) in 1833.

In the spring of that year Mendelssohn directed the Lower Rhenish Music Festival in Düsseldorf, beginning with a performance of Handel's oratorio Israel in Egypt prepared from the original score which he had found in London. This precipitated a Handel revival in Germany, similar to the reawakened interest in J. S. Bach following his performance of the St Matthew Passion.^[33] Mendelssohn worked with dramatist Karl Immermann to improve local theatre standards, and made his first appearance as an opera conductor in Immermann's production of Mozart's Don Giovanni at the end of 1833, where he took umbrage at the audience's protests about the cost of tickets.^[34] His frustration at his everyday duties in Düsseldorf, and the city's provincialism, led him to resign his position at the end of 1834.

Mendelssohn in Britain[link]

In 1829 Mendelssohn paid his first visit to Britain, where his former teacher Ignaz Moscheles, already settled in London, introduced him to influential musical circles. In the summer he visited Edinburgh, where he met among others the composer John Thomson, whom he later recommended to be Professor of Music at Edinburgh University.^[35] On his eighth visit in the summer of 1844, he conducted five of the Philharmonic concerts in London, and wrote:

[N]ever before was anything like this season – we never went to bed before half-past one, every hour of every day was filled with engagements three weeks beforehand, and I got through more music in two months than in all the rest of the year.^[36]

On subsequent visits he met Queen Victoria and her musical husband Prince Albert, who both greatly admired his music.^[37][38]

In the course of ten visits to Britain during his life, totalling about 20 months, Mendelssohn won a strong following, sufficient for him to make a deep impression on British musical life.^[39] He composed and performed, and he edited for British publishers the first critical editions of oratorios of Handel and of the organ music of J.S. Bach. Scotland inspired two of his most famous works: the Hebrides Overture, (also known as Fingal's Cave); and the Scottish Symphony (Symphony No. 3). Mendelssohn also worked closely with his protégé, the British composer and pianist William Sterndale Bennett, (whom he had first heard in London in 1833 when Bennett was 17), both in London and Leipzig, where Bennett appeared throughout the 1836/37 season.^[40] Mendelssohn's oratorio Elijah was premiered in Birmingham at the Triennial Music Festival on 26 August 1846, using an English translation by William Bartholomew, who served as his text author and translator for many of his works during his time in England.^[41] On his last visit to Britain in 1847, Mendelssohn was the soloist in Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 and conducted his own Scottish Symphony with the Philharmonic Orchestra before the Queen and Prince Albert.^[42]

Leipzig and Berlin[link]

Felix Mendelssohn's study in Leipzig

In 1835 Mendelssohn was named conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra.^[43] He chose this position although he had also been offered direction of the opera house in Munich and the editorship of the prestigious music journal, the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung.^[44] Mendelssohn concentrated on developing the musical life of Leipzig, working with the orchestra, the opera house, the Choir of St. Thomas Church, and the city’s other choral and musical institutions. Mendelssohn's concerts included, in addition to many of his own works, three series of "historical concerts" and a number of works by his contemporaries. He was deluged by offers of music from rising composers and would-be composers; amongst these was Richard Wagner, who submitted his early Symphony, which to Wagner’s disgust Mendelssohn lost or mislaid.^[40] Mendelssohn also revived interest in Franz Schubert. Robert Schumann discovered the manuscript of Schubert's 9th Symphony and sent it to Mendelssohn, who promptly premiered it in Leipzig on 21 March 1839, more than a decade after Schubert's death.^[45]

A landmark event during Mendelssohn’s Leipzig years was the premiere of his oratorio St. Paul, given at the Lower Rhenish Festival in Düsseldorf in 1836, shortly after the death of the composer’s father, which much affected him; Felix wrote that he would "never cease to endeavour to gain his approval [...] although I can no longer enjoy it".^[46] St. Paul seemed to many of Mendelssohn’s contemporaries to be his finest work, and sealed his European reputation.^[47]

When Friedrich Wilhelm IV came to the Prussian throne in 1840 with ambitions to develop Berlin as a cultural centre (including the establishment of a music school, and reform of music for the church), the obvious choice to head these reforms was Mendelssohn. He was however reluctant to undertake the task, especially in the light of his existing strong position in Leipzig.^[48] Mendelssohn did however spend some time in Berlin, writing some church music, and, at the King’s request, music for productions of Sophocles’s Antigone (1841) and Oedipus at Colonus (1845), Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream (1843) and Racine's Athalie (1845). But the funds for the school never materialised, and various of the court's promises to Mendelssohn regarding finances, title, and concert programming were broken. He was therefore not displeased to have the excuse to return to Leipzig.

Felix Mendelssohn's grave

In 1843 Mendelssohn founded a major music school – the Leipzig Conservatory, now the Hochschule für Musik und Theater "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" or (in its own English self-designation) the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy University of Music and Theatre – where he persuaded Ignaz Moscheles and Robert Schumann to join him. Other prominent musicians, including string players Ferdinand David and Joseph Joachim and music theorist Moritz Hauptmann, also became staff members.^[49] After Mendelssohn's death in 1847, his conservative tradition was carried on when Moscheles succeeded him as head of the Conservatory.

Death[link]

Mendelssohn suffered from poor health in the final years of his life, probably aggravated by nervous problems and overwork. The death of his sister Fanny on 14 May 1847 caused him great distress. Less than six months later, on 4 November, Mendelssohn himself died in Leipzig after a series of strokes. He was 38. His grandfather Moses, his sister Fanny and both his parents had died from similar apoplexies.^[50] The details of the moment of his death are quite poetic. As he lay unconscious in bed surrounded by friends and doctors, a marching band passed by outside his home. A servant absentmindedly threw open the front door and the brass music flooded into his bedchamber. Mendelssohn sat bolt upright in bed with his hands ready to conduct, and then collapsed back on his pillow and was dead. His funeral was held at the Paulinerkirche, Leipzig, and he was buried in the Trinity Church Cemetery No. 1 in Berlin-Kreuzberg. The pallbearers included Moscheles, Schumann and Niels Gade.^[51] Mendelssohn had once described death, in a letter to a stranger, as a place "where it is to be hoped there is still music, but no more sorrow or partings".^[52]

Personal life[link]

Personality[link]

View of Lucerne – watercolour by Mendelssohn, 1847

Although the image was cultivated, especially after his death in the detailed family memoirs by his nephew Sebastian Hensel,^[53] of a man always equable, happy and placid in temperament, this was misleading. The nickname "discontented Polish count" was given to Mendelssohn because of his aloofness, and he referred to the epithet in his letters.^[54] Mendelssohn was frequently given to alarming fits of temper which occasionally led to collapse. On one occasion in the 1830s, when his wishes had been crossed, "his excitement was increased so fearfully ... that when the family was assembled ... he began to talk incoherently, and in English, to the great terror of them all. The stern voice of his father at last checked the wild torrent of words; they took him to bed, and a profound sleep of twelve hours restored him to his normal state".^[55] Such fits may be related to his early death.^[56]

Mendelssohn was a fine and enthusiastic artist in pencil and watercolour, a skill which he used throughout his life for his own amusement and that of his friends.^[57][58] His enormous correspondence shows that he could also be a witty writer in German and English – sometimes accompanied by humorous sketches and cartoons in the text.

Religion[link]

Although Mendelssohn was a conforming (if not over-zealous) Lutheran by confession,^{[n 3]} he was both conscious and proud of his Jewish ancestry and notably of his connection with his grandfather Moses Mendelssohn. He was the prime mover in proposing to the publisher Heinrich Brockhaus a complete edition of Moses's works, which continued with the support of his uncle Joseph Mendelssohn.^[59] Mendelssohn was notably reluctant, either in his letters or conversation, to comment on his innermost beliefs; his friend Devrient wrote that "[his] deep convictions were never uttered in intercourse with the world; only in rare and intimate moments did they ever appear, and then only in the slightest and most humorous allusions".^[60] Thus for example in a letter to his sister Rebecka, Mendelssohn rebukes her complaint about an unpleasant relative: "What do you mean by saying you are not hostile to Jews? I hope this was a joke [...] It is really sweet of you that you do not despise your family, isn't it?"^[61]. Some modern scholars have devoted considerable energy to demonstrate that Mendelssohn was either deeply sympathetic to his Jewishness or sincere to his Lutheran beliefs (though there is in fact no reason to suppose these attitudes to be incompatible).^{[n 4]}

Mendelssohn and his contemporaries[link]

Throughout his life Mendelssohn was wary of the more radical musical developments undertaken by some of his contemporaries. He was generally on friendly, if sometimes somewhat cool, terms with the likes of Hector Berlioz, Franz Liszt, and Giacomo Meyerbeer, but in his letters expresses his frank disapproval of their works, for example writing of Liszt that his compositions were "inferior to his playing, and [..] only calculated for virtuosos";^[62] of Berlioz's overture Les francs-juges "the orchestration is such a frightful muddle [...] that one ought to wash one's hands after handling one of his scores";^[63] and of Meyerbeer's opera Robert le diable "I consider it ignoble", calling its villain Bertram "a poor devil".^[64] When his friend the composer Ferdinand Hiller suggested in conversation to Mendelssohn that he looked rather like Meyerbeer – they were actually distant cousins, both descendants of Rabbi Moses Isserlis – Mendelssohn was so upset that he immediately went to get a haircut to differentiate himself.^[65]

In particular, Mendelssohn seems to have regarded Paris and its music with the greatest of suspicion and an almost puritanical distaste. Attempts made during his visit there to interest him in Saint-Simonianism ended in embarrassing scenes.^[66]

It is significant that the only musician with whom he remained a close personal friend, Ignaz Moscheles, was of an older generation and equally conservative in outlook. Moscheles preserved this outlook at the Leipzig Conservatory until his own death in 1870.

Marriage and children[link]

Mendelssohn's wife Cécile (1846) by Eduard Magnus

Mendelssohn married Cécile Charlotte Sophie Jeanrenaud (10 October 1817 – 25 September 1853), the daughter of a French Protestant clergyman, on 28 March 1837.^[67] The couple had five children: Carl, Marie, Paul, Lilli and Felix. The second youngest child, Felix August, contracted measles in 1844 and was left with his health impaired; he died in 1851.^[68] The eldest, Carl Mendelssohn Bartholdy (7 February 1838 – 23 February 1897), became a distinguished historian, and professor of history at Heidelberg and Freiburg universities, dying in 1897 in a psychiatric institution in Freiburg.^[69] Paul Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1841–1880) was a noted chemist and pioneered the manufacture of aniline dye. Marie married Victor Benecke and lived in London. Lili married Adolph Wach, later Professor of Law at Leipzig University.^[70] The family papers inherited by Marie and Lili's children form the basis of the extensive collection of Mendelssohn manuscripts, including the so-called 'Green Books' of his correspondence, now in the Bodleian Library at Oxford University.^[71]

Cécile Mendelssohn Bartholdy died less than six years after her husband, on 25 September 1853.^[72]

Jenny Lind[link]

Jenny Lind

In general Mendelssohn's personal life seems to have been fairly conventional compared to his contemporaries Wagner, Berlioz, and Schumann – except for his relationship with Swedish soprano Jenny Lind, whom he met in October 1844. An affidavit from Lind's husband, Otto Goldschmidt, which is currently held in the archive of the Mendelssohn Scholarship Foundation at the Royal Academy of Music in London, reportedly describes Mendelssohn's 1847 written request for Lind, who was then not married, to elope with him to America. The affidavit, though unsealed, is currently unreleased by the Mendelssohn Scholarship Foundation, despite requests to make it public.^{[73][n 5]}

Mendelssohn met and worked with Lind many times, and started an opera, Lorelei, for her, based on the legend of the Lorelei Rhine maidens; the opera was unfinished at his death. He is said to have included a high F-sharp in his oratorio Elijah ("Hear Ye Israel") with Lind's voice in mind,^[75] although she did not sing this part until after his death, at a concert in December 1848.^[76] In 1847 Mendelssohn attended a London performance of Meyerbeer's Robert le diable – an opera which musically he despised – in order to hear Lind's British debut, in the role of Alice. The music critic Henry Chorley, who was with him, wrote "I see as I write the smile with which Mendelssohn, whose enjoyment of Mdlle. Lind's talent was unlimited, turned round and looked at me, as if a load of anxiety had been taken off his mind. His attachment to Mlle. Lind's genius as a singer was unbounded, as was his desire for her success".^[77]

Upon Mendelssohn's death Lind wrote, "[He was] the only person who brought fulfillment to my spirit, and almost as soon as I found him I lost him again". In 1869 Lind erected a plaque in Mendelssohn's memory at his birthplace in Hamburg; in 1849 she established the Mendelssohn Scholarship Foundation, which makes an award to a British resident young composer every two years in Mendelssohn's memory.^[73] The first winner of the scholarship was Arthur Sullivan, then aged 14, in 1856.

Mendelssohn as musician[link]

Composer[link]

Richard Taruskin points out that, although Mendelssohn produced works of extraordinary mastery at a very early age,

he never outgrew his precocious youthful style. [...] He remained stylistically conservative [...] feeling no need to attract attention with a display of 'revolutionary' novelty. Throughout his short career he remained comfortably faithful to the musical status quo – that is, the "classical" forms, as they were already thought of by his time. His version of romanticism, already evident in his earliest works, consisted in musical "pictorialism" of a fairly conventional, objective nature (though exquisitely wrought).^[78]

In these ways he differed substantially from his contemporaries such as Wagner and Berlioz, even from Schumann and Chopin. The absence of real stylistic 'development' during Mendelssohn's career makes it appropriate to consider his works by genre, rather than in order of composition.

Early works[link]

The young Mendelssohn was greatly influenced in his childhood by the music of Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart and traces of these can all be seen in the 12 early string symphonies – mainly written for performance in the Mendelssohn household, and not published or publicly performed until long after his death. He wrote these from 1821 to 1823, when he was between the ages of 12 and 14 years old.

Mendelssohn's first published works were his three piano quartets, (1822–1825; Op. 1 in C minor, Op. 2 in F minor and Op. 3 in B minor); but his astounding capacities are especially revealed in a group of works of his early maturity:

• the String Octet (1825)

• the Overture A Midsummer Night's Dream (1826), which in its finished form also owes much to the influence of Adolf Bernhard Marx, at the time a close friend of Mendelssohn.

• the two early quartets: Op. 12 (1829), and Op.13 (1827), which both show a remarkable grasp of the techniques and ideas of Beethoven's last quartets, which Mendelssohn had been closely studying^[79]

These four works show an intuitive grasp of form, harmony, counterpoint, colour, and compositional technique, which justify claims frequently made that Mendelssohn's precocity exceeded even that of Mozart in its intellectual grasp.^[80]

Symphonies[link]

The numbering of Mendelssohn's mature symphonies is approximately in order of publishing, rather than of composition. The order of actual composition is: 1, 5, 4, 2, 3. Because he worked on it for over a decade, the placement of No. 3 in this sequence is problematic; Mendelssohn started sketches for it soon after starting No. 5, but completed it following both Nos. 5 and 4.

The Symphony No. 1 in C minor for full-scale orchestra was written in 1824, when Mendelssohn was aged 15. This work is experimental, showing the influences of Beethoven, and Carl Maria von Weber.^[81] Mendelssohn conducted this symphony on his first visit to London in 1829, with the orchestra of the Royal Philharmonic Society. For the third movement he substituted an orchestration of the Scherzo from his Octet. In this form the piece was a success, and laid the foundations of his British reputation.^[82]

During 1829 and 1830 Mendelssohn wrote his Symphony No. 5, known as the Reformation. It celebrated the 300th anniversary of the Lutheran Church. Mendelssohn remained dissatisfied with the work and did not allow publication of the score.^[83]

The Scottish Symphony (Symphony No. 3 in A minor) was written and revised intermittently between 1829 (when Mendelssohn noted down the opening theme during a visit to Holyrood Palace)^[84] and 1842, when it was given its premiere in Leipzig, the last of his symphonies to be performed in public. This piece evokes Scotland's atmosphere in the ethos of Romanticism, but does not employ any identified Scottish folk melodies.^[85]

Mendelssohn's travels in Italy inspired him to write the Symphony No. 4 in A major, known as the Italian Symphony. Mendelssohn conducted the premiere in 1833, but he did not allow this score to be published during his lifetime as he continually sought to rewrite it.^[86]

Mendelssohn wrote the choral Symphony No. 2 in B-flat major, entitled Lobgesang (Hymn of Praise), to mark the celebrations in Leipzig of the 400th anniversary of the invention of the printing press; the first performance took place on 25 June 1840.^[87]

Other orchestral music[link]

Trumpet part, including main theme, of the Wedding March from Op. 61.

Mendelssohn wrote the concert Hebrides Overture (Fingal's Cave) in 1830, inspired by visits he made to Scotland around the end of the 1820s. He visited Fingal's Cave, on the Hebridean isle of Staffa, as part of his Grand Tour of Europe, and was so impressed that he scribbled the opening theme of the overture on the spot, including it in a letter he wrote home the same evening.

Throughout his career he wrote a number of other concert overtures. Those most frequently played today include an overture to Ruy Blas, commissioned for a charity performance of Victor Hugo's drama, which Mendelssohn hated; Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage (Meeresstille und glückliche Fahrt) inspired by a pair of poems by Goethe; and The Fair Melusine.

The incidental music to A Midsummer Night's Dream (Op. 61), including the well-known Wedding March, was written in 1843, seventeen years after the overture.

Opera[link]

Mendelssohn wrote some Singspiels for family performance in his youth. His opera Die beiden Neffen (The Two Nephews) was rehearsed for him on his 15th birthday.^[88] 1829 saw Die Heimkehr aus der Fremde (Son and Stranger or Return of the Roamer), a comedy of mistaken identity written in honor of his parents' silver anniversary and unpublished during his lifetime. In 1825 he wrote a more sophisticated work, Die Hochzeit des Camacho (Camacho's Wedding), based on an episode in Don Quixote, for public consumption. It was produced in Berlin in 1827, but coolly received. Mendelssohn left the theatre before the conclusion of the first performance, and subsequent performances were cancelled.^[89]

Although he never abandoned the idea of composing a full opera, and considered many subjects – including that of the Nibelung saga later adapted by Wagner – he never wrote more than a few pages of sketches for any project. In Mendelssohn's last years the opera manager Benjamin Lumley tried to contract him to write an opera from Shakespeare's The Tempest on a libretto by Eugène Scribe, and even announced it as forthcoming in 1847, the year of Mendelssohn's death.^[90] The libretto was eventually set by Fromental Halévy. At his death Mendelssohn left some sketches for an opera on the story of the Lorelei.

Concertos[link]

Violin Concerto op.64, main theme of second movement

The Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64 (1844), written for Ferdinand David, has become one of the most popular of all of Mendelssohn's compositions. David, who had worked closely with Mendelssohn during the piece's preparation, gave the premiere of the concerto on his Guarneri violin.^[91]

Mendelssohn also wrote two piano concertos; a lesser-known, early violin concerto (D minor); two concertos for two pianos and orchestra when he was 15 and 17 years old; and a double concerto for piano and violin. In addition, there are several single-movement works for soloist and orchestra. Those for piano are the Rondo Brillante, Op. 29, of 1834; the Capriccio Brillante, Op. 22, of 1832; and the Serenade and Allegro Giocoso Op. 43, of 1838. He also wrote two concertinos (Konzertstücke), Op. 113 and Op. 114, originally for clarinet, basset horn and piano; Op. 113 was orchestrated by the composer.^[92]

Chamber music[link]

Mendelssohn's mature output contains many chamber works, many of which display an emotional intensity lacking in some of his larger works. In particular his String Quartet No. 6, which is the last of his string quartets and last major work – written following the death of his sister Fanny – is both powerful and eloquent. Other mature works include two string quintets; sonatas for the clarinet, cello, viola and violin; and two piano trios. For the Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Mendelssohn uncharacteristically took the advice of his fellow composer, Ferdinand Hiller, and rewrote the piano part in a more romantic, "Schumannesque" style, considerably heightening its effect.^[93]

Choral works[link]

Part of the overture to 'Elijah' arranged by Mendelssohn for piano duet (manuscript in the Library of Congress)

Mendelssohn's two large biblical oratorios, St Paul in 1836 and Elijah in 1846, are greatly influenced by Bach. His unfinished oratorio, Christus, consists of a recitative, a chorus "There Shall a Star Come out of Jacob," and a male trio; the chorus is sometimes performed.

Strikingly different is the more overtly romantic Die erste Walpurgisnacht (The First Walpurgis Night), a setting for chorus and orchestra of a ballad by Goethe describing pagan rituals of the Druids in the Harz mountains in the early days of Christianity. This remarkable score has been seen by the scholar Heinz-Klaus Metzger as a "Jewish protest against the domination of Christianity".^[94]

Mendelssohn also wrote many smaller-scale sacred works for unaccompanied choir and for choir with organ. Most are written in or translated into English, and remain highly popular. Amongst the most famous is Hear My Prayer, with its second half containing "O for the Wings of a Dove," which became extremely popular as a separate item. The piece is written for full choir, organ, and a treble or soprano soloist who has many challenging and extended solo passages. As such, it is a particular favourite for choirboys in churches and cathedrals, and has frequently been recorded as a treble solo. Mendelssohn's biographer Todd comments 'The very popularity of the anthem in England [...] later exposed it to charges of superficiality from those contemptuous of Victorian mores'.^[95]

The hymn tune Mendelssohn – an adaptation by William Hayman Cummings of a melody from Mendelssohn's cantata Festgesang (Festive Hymn) – is the standard tune for Charles Wesley's popular hymn Hark! The Herald Angels Sing. This extract from an originally secular 1840s composition, which Mendelssohn felt unsuited to sacred music,^[87] is ubiquitous at Christmas.

Songs[link]

Mendelssohn wrote many songs, both for solo voice and for duet, with piano. Many of these are simple, or slightly modified, strophic settings. Some, including Auf Flügeln des Gesanges (On Wings of Song), became popular. Seven of Mendelssohn's songs, including Auf Flügeln des Gesanges and Neue Liebe (New Love, set to a poem by Heinrich Heine) were transcribed for piano solo, in a virtuoso style, by Franz Liszt.

A number of songs written by Mendelssohn's sister Fanny originally appeared under her brother's name; this may have been partly due to the prejudice of the family, and partly to her own retiring nature.^[96]

Piano music[link]

Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words (Lieder ohne Worte), eight cycles each containing six lyric pieces (two published posthumously), remain his most famous solo piano compositions. They became standard parlour recital items even during the composer's lifetime^[97], and their overwhelming popularity has itself caused many critics to underrate their musical value.^[98] Other composers who were inspired to produce similar pieces of their own included Charles-Valentin Alkan (his five sets of Chants, each ending with a barcarole), Anton Rubinstein, Ignaz Moscheles, and Edvard Grieg.

Other notable piano pieces by Mendelssohn include his Variations sérieuses, Op. 54 (1841), the Rondo Capriccioso, the set of six Preludes and Fugues, Op. 35 (written between 1832 and 1837), and the Seven Characteristic Pieces, Op. 7 (1827).

Organ music[link]

Advertisement for the Organ Sonatas in the Musical World, 24 July 1845

Mendelssohn played the organ and composed for it from the age of 11 to his death. His primary organ works are the Three Preludes and Fugues, Op. 37 (1837), and the Six Sonatas, Op. 65 (1845), of which Eric Werner wrote "next to Bach's works, Mendelssohn's Organ Sonatas belong to the required repertory of all organists".^[99]

Performer[link]

Mendelssohn was renowned during his lifetime as a keyboard performer, both on the piano and on the organ. One of his obituarists noted:

First and chiefest we esteem his pianoforte-playing, with its amazing elasticity of touch, rapidity, and power; next his scientific and vigorous organ playing [...] his triumphs on these instruments are fresh in public recollection.^[100]

In his concerts and recitals Mendelssohn performed both his own works and those of his predecessor German composers, notably works of Weber, Beethoven and (on the organ) J.S. Bach.^[101]

Both in private and public performances, Mendelssohn was also renowned for his improvisations. On one occasion in London, when asked by the soprano Maria Malibran after a recital to extemporise, he created a piece which included the melodies of all the songs she had sung. The music publisher Victor Novello who was present remarked 'He has done some things that seem to me impossible, even after I have heard them done.'^[102]. At another recital in 1837, where Mendelssohn played the piano for a singer, Robert Schumann ignored the soprano and wrote 'Mendelssohn accompanied like a God'.^[103]

Conductor[link]

Mendelssohn was a noted conductor, both of his own works and of other composers. At his London debut in 1829, he was noted for his innovatory use of a baton (then a great novelty).^[104] But his novelty also extended to taking great care over tempo, dynamics and the orchestral players themselves – both rebuking them when they were recalcitrant and praising them when they satisfied him. ^[105]. It was his success at conducting at the Lower Rhine music festival of 1836 that led to him taking his first paid professional position as director at Düsseldorf. Amongst those who appreciated Mendelssohn's conducting was Hector Berlioz, who in 1843, invited to Leipzig, exchanged batons with Mendelssohn, writing "When the Great Spirit sends us to hunt in the land of souls, may our warriors hang our tomahawks side by side at the door of the council chamber".^[106] At Leipzig, Mendelssohn led the Gewandhaus orchestra to great heights; although concentrating on the great composers of the past (already becoming canonised as the 'classics') he also included new music by Schumann, Berlioz, Gade and many others (including of course his own music).^[107] One critic who was not impressed however was Richard Wagner; he accused Mendelssohn of using tempos in his performances of Beethoven symphonies that were far too fast.^[108]

Editor[link]

Mendelssohn's interest in baroque music was not limited to the Bach St Matthew Passion which he had revived in 1829. He was concerned in preparing and editing such music, whether for performance or for publication, to be as close as possible to the original intentions of the composers, including wherever possible a close study of early editions and manuscripts. This could lead him into conflict with publishers; for instance, his edition of Handel's oratorio Israel in Egypt for the London Handel Society (1845) evoked an often contentious correspondence, with Mendelssohn refusing for example to add dynamics where not given by Handel, or to add parts for trombones. Mendelssohn also edited a number of Bach's works for organ, and apparently discussed with Robert Schumann the possibility of producing a complete Bach edition.^[109]

Teacher[link]

Although Mendelssohn attributed great importance to musical education, and made a substantial commitment to the Conservatoire he founded in Leipzig, he did not greatly enjoy teaching and undertook only a very few private pupils; these he took only if he believed they had notable qualities or potential.^[110] Amongst such students were composer William Sterndale Bennett, the pianist Camille Stamaty, the violinist and composer Julius Eichberg, and Walther Goethe (grandson of the poet).^[111] At the Leipzig Conservatoire Mendelssohn taught classes in composition and ensemble playing.^[112]