* * * * *
During the following months they spent many pleasant hours together.
Mendelssohn brought the “cab-full;” and amongst other compositions it
contained his sacred Cantata on a Chorale in A minor, a Chorus in
sixteen parts (“Hora est”), and a stringed Quartet in A minor; and
Moscheles finds in the works of the young composer “a solid substratum
of study, and the rarest and most promising of natural gifts.” He soon
became a favorite in all circles of London society, always welcome as an
artist and as a genial companion. His Overture to “A Midsummer Night’s
Dream” was performed, and met with an enthusiastic reception.
What he writes of his Double Concerto is so bright that we quote his own
words:--
* * * * *
“Yesterday Moscheles and I had a first trial of my Double Concerto in E
in Clementi’s piano-manufactory. Mrs. Moscheles and Mr. Collard were our
audience. It was great fun; no one has an idea how Moscheles and I
coquetted together on the piano,--how the one constantly imitated the
other, and how sweet we were. Moscheles plays the last movement with
wonderful brilliancy; the runs drop from his fingers like magic. When it
was over, all said it was a pity that we had made no cadenza; so I at
once hit upon a passage in the first part of the last _tutti_ where the
orchestra has a pause, and Moscheles had _nolens volens_ to comply and
compose a grand cadenza. We now deliberated, amid a thousand jokes,
whether the small last solo should remain in its place, since of course
the people would applaud the cadenza. ‘We must have a bit of _tutti_
between the cadenza and the solo,’ said I. ‘How long are they to clap
their hands?’ asked Moscheles. ‘Ten minutes, I dare say,’ said I.
Moscheles beat me down to five. I promised to supply a _tutti_; and so
we took the measure, embroidered, turned, and padded, put in sleeves _à
la_ Mameluke, and at last with our mutual tailoring produced a brilliant
concerto. We shall have another rehearsal to-day; it will be quite a
picnic, for Moscheles brings the cadenza, and I the _tutti_.”[2]
* * * * *
In the summer of this year Moscheles made a concert tour through
Denmark, whilst Mendelssohn took a trip to Scotland with Klingemann.
There, after the multifarious duties and pleasures of a London season,
he sought fresh strength and energy; there, also, he conceived the germs
of two great works, subsequently to be matured, the Scotch Symphony and
the Overture to “The Isles of Fingal.” Towards the end of November he
returned to Berlin, in time for the celebration of his parents’ silver
wedding.
* * * * *