Letters of Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy from 1833 to 1847

These letters capture Mendelssohn at the height of his powers. Written between 1833 and 1847, they follow the composer from his triumphant tours of Italy and England through his founding of the Leipzig Conservatory to his tragically early death at thirty-eight. What emerges is not the polished public figure but a vivid, sometimes vulnerable man: exulting in a beautiful landscape, fretting over a difficult premiere, delighting in his domestic happiness with his wife Cécile, wrestling with Bach's chorales, and marveling at the youthful energy of a new generation of musicians. His correspondence with family, colleagues, and friends reveals the full range of his temperament, from professing that music is 'the one thing that stands by me' to sharp observations about the theatrical politics that frustrated him. These are the private words of a genius written in the full flood of creation, before the curtain fell forever in 1847. For anyone who has ever wanted to hear a great composer speak in his own voice, unguarded and urgent, this collection is an invitation into a remarkable mind.