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The composer, virtuoso pianist and conductor Felix Mendelssohn
(1809 47) was lionised by the music-loving public during his
lifetime, and his music is still greatly admired today. A versatile
child prodigy, he wrote music for A Midsummer Night's Dream while
he was still a teenager. Masterpieces such as the octet for
strings, the 'Italian' symphony, the violin concerto and his great
oratorio Elijah followed. His extraordinary ability was such that
he was made an honorary member of the Philharmonic Society in 1829
at the age of only twenty during the first of his ten visits to
Britain. A great advocate of Johann Sebastian Bach, Mendelssohn did
much to reawaken interest in his music. This eminently readable
short biography by the composer William Smith Rockstro (1823 95)
was first published in 1884 as part of Francis Hueffer's 'Great
Musicians' series. A list of Mendelssohn's works is included as an
appendix.
Beloved not only in Britain, George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) is
admired as a composer the world over. His inventive and sensitive
melodic genius and his exuberant brilliance in depicting the
spectacular are best displayed in his Messiah and Zadok the Priest.
Larger than life, Handel impressed all who met him and was adept at
promoting his works, arranging for their publication and even
selling them from his home in London's Brook Street. His dogged
determination to triumph over the many reverses of his career and
the fickle enthusiasms of the Georgian public is the stuff of
three-volume novels. This sympathetic and highly readable biography
by the composer and author William Smith Rockstro (1823-95) was
first published in 1883. Wherever possible, autograph manuscripts
have been consulted and the book contains the first detailed
catalogue of Handel's output. Among other works, Rockstro's
biography of Mendelssohn is also reissued in this series.
A friend and pupil of Mendelssohn, the composer and author William
Smith Rockstro (1823-95) was regarded as an expert on early music.
He contributed articles on the subject to Sir George Grove's
Dictionary of Music and Musicians as well as teaching counterpoint
and plainsong at the Royal College of Music. His published output
includes biographies of Handel (1883), Mendelssohn (1884) and the
opera singer Jenny Lind (1891), all of which are reissued in this
series. The present work was first published in 1886. In its
narrative of musical history since the Greeks, it gives due weight
to the development of music in England and includes, naturally, a
chapter on Handel that reflects his enduring influence on national
taste. The final section of the book discusses the contemporary
musical scene and considers the importance of the recently deceased
Wagner for the music of the future.
Jenny Lind (1820-87) was one of Europe's most famous opera singers.
Known as the 'Swedish Nightingale', she first rose to prominence in
an 1838 performance of Weber's Freischutz. Despite her immense
success over the next ten years, she retired from the stage at the
age of twenty-nine. Seeking financial security to pursue her
charitable interests, in 1850 she accepted the invitation of
impresario P. T. Barnum to undertake a tour of the United States;
this was another succession of triumphs. Henry Scott Holland
(1847-1918), the theologian and social reformer, and music writer
William Smith Rockstro (1823-95) used Lind's own documents, letters
and diaries as the basis of this two-volume memoir, published in
1891, which focuses on the first thirty-one years of her life.
Volume 1 covers Lind's Swedish childhood and early singing career,
and a brief but critical period when she suffered damage to her
vocal cords.
Jenny Lind (1820-87) was one of Europe's most famous opera singers.
Known as the 'Swedish Nightingale', she first rose to prominence in
an 1838 performance of Weber's Freischutz. Despite her immense
success over the next ten years, she retired from the stage at the
age of twenty-nine. Seeking financial security to pursue her
charitable interests, in 1850 she accepted the invitation of
impresario P. T. Barnum to undertake a tour of the United States;
this was another succession of triumphs. Henry Scott Holland
(1847-1918), the theologian and social reformer, and music writer
William Smith Rockstro (1823-95) used Lind's own documents, letters
and diaries as the basis of this two-volume memoir, published in
1891, which focuses on the first thirty-one years of her life.
Volume 2 discusses some of Lind's most memorable performances in
Europe and the reasons for her first retirement; it ends with her
departure for America.
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