Although Mendelssohn was most famous during his lifetime as a
composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor, he also enjoyed an
enviable reputation as a highly skilled organist. The instrument
had fascinated - one might almost say mesmerized - him from
earliest youth, but aside from a year or so of formal training at
the age of about twelve or thirteen, he was entirely self-taught.
He never held a position as church organist, and he never had any
organ pupils. Nevertheless, the instrument played a uniquely
important role in his personal life. In the course of his many
travels, whether in major cities or tiny villages, he invariably
gravitated to the organ loft, where he might spend hours playing
the works of Bach or simply improvising. Although the piano clearly
served Mendelssohn as an eminently practical instrument, the organ
seems to have been his instrument of choice. He searched out an
organ loft, not because he had to, but because he wanted to,
because on the organ he could find catharsis. Indeed, as he once
exclaimed to his parents, after reading a portion of Schiller's
Wilhelm Tell, "I must rush off to the monastery and work off my
excitement on the organ "
Mendelssohn's public performance on the organ in Germany was rare,
and he gave but one public recital - in the Thomas-Kirche in
Leipzig in 1840. In England, however, he evidently felt more
comfortable on the organ bench and played there often before large
crowds. Indeed, he performed as Guest Organist twice at the
Birmingham Music Festivals, in 1837 and 1842.
Given Mendelssohn's profound affinity for the organ, it is
remarkable that he composed but relatively little for the
instrument, and assigned an Opus number to only two works - his
Three Preludes and Fugues for Organ (Op. 37) and his Six Sonatas
for the Organ (Op. 65). A small number of organ works, plus
sketches and drafts, were scattered among his musical papers; most
of these only gradually found their way into print, and it was not
until the late twentieth century that an edition of his complete
organ works was finally published. This volume is intended as a
companion to that edition.
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