MENDELSSOHN BARTHOLDY, Felix (1809-1847). Autograph letter signed (‘Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy’) to [Jakob] Rosenhain, Berlin, 13 January 1842. In German. Four pages, 186 x 120mm, bifolium. Envelope. A delightful, long letter to the pianist and composer Jakob Rosenhain: mentioning Fingal ’ s Cave and his plans to write an opera, and sending greetings to Chopin. Mendelssohn is thrilled to hear from his ‘pleasant, faithful, good-natured friend’, while chiding Rosenhain for not providing him with any of his own news. The piece in B minor that he sent a few weeks ago pleased Mendelssohn greatly: ‘Now I should like to know what new pieces you have. I have heard something about an opera but have you not something more for the piano? or songs, etc? Do write & tell me!’. Turning to his own work, he continues: ‘I was very interested in what you said of my work & the performance in Paris: many thanks. Yet I must confess that I promise myself very little results from it. Later, when I have succeeded in composing something better & bearing a more distinct stamp of the tendency that I have cultivated for myself, I may venture to hope that one or other of my works may make its way there: I doubt it of what I have written so far; they do not differ enough from those over there. But you can imagine nevertheless that it is a great pleasure to me when something of mine is played there, especially when a man like [François] Habeneck is interested in it’, to whom Mendelssohn asks Rosenhain to send his good wishes. He then asks his friend’s advice: ‘The metronome figures for my St Paul are found in the full score, published by Simrock in Bonn, and are indispensable for a performance. Do you think it advisable to begin with Die Fingalshö hle overture? Would it not be better for Hageneck first to have two or at least three overtures played at a rehearsal to see what appeals to the orchestra most?’, before adding a note on correcting a printing error in the score. ‘And fancy now to write an opera in Paris!’: Rosenhain knows that he would like [Augustin Eugène] Scribe for a librettist, but Mendelssohn has been struggling for ‘a thoroughly beautiful subject … There are so many difficulties in the way in coming forward in Paris with a first work of that kind that I really could only think of doing so if I had produced a few operas on the stage in Germany’. Nevertheless, Mendelssohn thanks Rosenhain for the kind thought, adding ‘If you see Baillot or Chopin kindly remember me to them’. Jakob Rosenhain (1813-1894) had made the acquaintance of Mendelssohn in Leipzig a few years earlier: while the present letter comes some time before he moved permanently to Paris, in 1849, it is clear that Rosenhain was by this time a close acquaintance of the conductor François Antoine Habeneck (1781-1849), who led the Paris Opera. Mendelssohn writes very honestly to Rosenhain, as one composer to another, with his fears over the reception of his work in Paris, asking his advice for its performance there under the conductor François Habeneck.
MENDELSSOHN BARTHOLDY, Felix (1809-1847). Autograph letter signed (‘Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy’) to [Jakob] Rosenhain, Berlin, 13 January 1842. In German. Four pages, 186 x 120mm, bifolium. Envelope. A delightful, long letter to the pianist and composer Jakob Rosenhain: mentioning Fingal ’ s Cave and his plans to write an opera, and sending greetings to Chopin. Mendelssohn is thrilled to hear from his ‘pleasant, faithful, good-natured friend’, while chiding Rosenhain for not providing him with any of his own news. The piece in B minor that he sent a few weeks ago pleased Mendelssohn greatly: ‘Now I should like to know what new pieces you have. I have heard something about an opera but have you not something more for the piano? or songs, etc? Do write & tell me!’. Turning to his own work, he continues: ‘I was very interested in what you said of my work & the performance in Paris: many thanks. Yet I must confess that I promise myself very little results from it. Later, when I have succeeded in composing something better & bearing a more distinct stamp of the tendency that I have cultivated for myself, I may venture to hope that one or other of my works may make its way there: I doubt it of what I have written so far; they do not differ enough from those over there. But you can imagine nevertheless that it is a great pleasure to me when something of mine is played there, especially when a man like [François] Habeneck is interested in it’, to whom Mendelssohn asks Rosenhain to send his good wishes. He then asks his friend’s advice: ‘The metronome figures for my St Paul are found in the full score, published by Simrock in Bonn, and are indispensable for a performance. Do you think it advisable to begin with Die Fingalshö hle overture? Would it not be better for Hageneck first to have two or at least three overtures played at a rehearsal to see what appeals to the orchestra most?’, before adding a note on correcting a printing error in the score. ‘And fancy now to write an opera in Paris!’: Rosenhain knows that he would like [Augustin Eugène] Scribe for a librettist, but Mendelssohn has been struggling for ‘a thoroughly beautiful subject … There are so many difficulties in the way in coming forward in Paris with a first work of that kind that I really could only think of doing so if I had produced a few operas on the stage in Germany’. Nevertheless, Mendelssohn thanks Rosenhain for the kind thought, adding ‘If you see Baillot or Chopin kindly remember me to them’. Jakob Rosenhain (1813-1894) had made the acquaintance of Mendelssohn in Leipzig a few years earlier: while the present letter comes some time before he moved permanently to Paris, in 1849, it is clear that Rosenhain was by this time a close acquaintance of the conductor François Antoine Habeneck (1781-1849), who led the Paris Opera. Mendelssohn writes very honestly to Rosenhain, as one composer to another, with his fears over the reception of his work in Paris, asking his advice for its performance there under the conductor François Habeneck.
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