Life of Mendelssohn

This account of Mendelssohn’s life strikes me as a very good brief survey: there is a reasonable amount about his immediate ancestors and his own family background. The Mendelssohns were well‐to‐do, and Felix’s early promise had huge encouragement, if in a very conservative direction. He was rarely a serious innovator in form or orchestration, although of prodigious talent. (He was also a competent draughtsman, and some of his drawings are reproduced here.)

To his contemporaries his reputation rested chiefly upon his ability to train orchestras and choirs to give accurate performances of new works, not always his own though often...