Once Mendelssohn was overrated, in a most partisan and partial spirit,
especially in England. Now it is too much the fashion, with young critics
and "disciples of the newness," to estimate him far below his real worth.
But all new fashions bring their own reaction. In this case the reaction
will be purifying and salubrious. A reviving interest in Mendelssohn's
music will be so much new guaranty against all false, extravagant, or
morbid taste.--While music remains music, whatever may be the ups and
downs of fashion, whatever the novelties of style or method, however
startling the juggleries of brilliant execution, the genius and the art
of Mendelssohn will still hold good. Their fascination may be lost awhile
amid the louder clamor of phenomenal new comers; in more sane, reposeful
hours, it surely will return with many a sweet surprise. What oratorio
society, of high aim and standing, can afford to let the _St. Paul_ and
_Elijah_, or the _Hymn of Praise_, lose any of their lustre through
neglect of frequent practice? What orchestra can fill out a worthy season
without one or more of his symphonies and of his poetic overtures? Is any
properly ambitious male chorus or part-song club well equipped without
the _Antigone_ and _Oedipus_ music, or the _Ode to the Artists_, or the
part-songs of Mendelssohn? Can any chamber music club dispense yet with
his string quartets, quintets, or octet? And where is the pianist, however
far advanced in virtuosity, who does not like to play sometimes his
compositions for pianoforte with orchestra, or who fails to find grateful
audience for the _Lieder ohne Wörter_? Indeed to ignore all this is to
convict oneself of a very youthful bumptiousness of spirit, an arrogant
fanaticism of unreasoning modernness in taste.
Four we count above all others in the temple of tone-art and
genius:--Bach, Handel, Mozart and Beethoven. Can we fill out a second four
without the name of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy? Choice may vary as to one
or two names in that second quartet; of Schubert and Schumann there can be
no question; some may have preference for Haydn, or for Gluck, or Weber,
Cherubini, even for Rossini; but when with the other distinctions we take
into account that of many-sidedness, all-round musicianship, can any other
four compete with Mendelssohn except to his advantage?
[Illustration: John S. Dwight.]
[Illustration: FROM A CAST OF MENDELSSOHN'S HAND.]
[Illustration: ROBERT SCHUMANN
_Reproduction of an etching by L. Otto, after a Danish photograph. This
portrait is preferred by Schumann's family as the most faithful and
characteristic._]
[Illustration: Schumann]
[Illustration]