Leipzig – Travel guide for opera, classical music and culture
Leipzig: A travel guide for music fans.
Historical places of classical music and opera art. Visiting destinations and background information related to great composers.
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Johann Sebastian Bach:
Bach’s appointment as Thomaskantor was rather bumpy. After the death of the previous cantor, the position was offered first to Telemann (as in Weimar) and then to another musician, both of whom declined. Thus Bach was only third choice, or as one councilman put it: “Since one cannot get the best-one must take the middle-one”. So Bach could leave Köthen.
During this time he was responsible for services and special church festivities of four churches. St. Nicholas Church and St. Thomas Church are still standing today, while two others fell victim to the Second World War. Bach’s main duties included the weekly performance of cantatas on Sundays and feast days. Bach put a lot of effort into this right at the beginning and wrote cantatas on a weekly basis. It is said that he composed five years of cantatas, of which three years (i.e. about 200 pieces) have survived. Already in 1724 he composed his most comprehensive work to date, the St. John Passion, and three years later the St. Matthew Passion. In 1730 a conflict arose with the council, since in Bach’s opinion the performance conditions had deteriorated. He now presented the council with his ideas of a “well-stocked church music,” thus handing down to posterity an important documentation of historical performance practice from the master’s hand.
Furthermore, he also had secular duties as music director. In Leipzig, a “Collegium musicum” had been formed (an orchestra of professional musicians and enthusiasts), which gave concerts in the hall and in the garden of a coffee house. For these concerts he wrote various works for orchestra, such as the harpsichord concertos.
The Leipzig period was overshadowed by private tragedies. Between 1726 and 1733, seven of Bach’s children died, in addition to the death of his last sibling, his sister Maria.
The late years of Bach still brought some great late works. These include, for example, “The Art of the Fugue”, the “Goldberg Variations” or the “Musical victims” (see “Bach in Berlin”). Soon thereafter, Bach’s health deteriorated. A severe eye disorder and disturbances in the arm of his writing hand hindered him so much that his creative work came to a virtual standstill. Bach subsequently underwent the famous eye operation performed by the passing controversial ophthalmologist Sir John Taylor in 1750. As with his professional colleague Handel, the result was a fiasco: although his eyesight improved briefly, he suffered a stroke a short time later and Johann Sebastian Bach died on July 28, 1750.
TO THE COMPLETE BACH BIOGRAPHY
Richard Wagner:
Richard Wagner was born in Leipzig as the ninth child, the house where he was born no longer stands. His father died a few months later and his mother married the poet and actor Ludwig Geyer a little later. It was long puzzled whether Ludwig, to whom Richard was very attached, was his biological father, which would have been very piquant because of his Jewish roots. Today it is assumed that this is not the case. After 2 years the family moved to Dresden.
At the age of 16, Wagner heard Fidelio with the Schröder-Devrient in Leipzig, which, according to him, was the deciding factor to become a professional musician. Two years later he began his musical studies at the University of Leipzig, composed his first works and became interested in politics. In 1833 he left Leipzig to gain professional experience.
LINK TO THE COMPLETE WAGNER BIOGRAPHY
Robert and Clara Schumann
Studies and piano training in Leipzig
Schumann, who grew up in nearby Zwickau, moved to Leipzig at the age of 18 to take up the unloved study of law. His mother wanted him to take up the studies, but Robert was mainly concerned with literature and music during this time. He stayed at the university for only one semester and then transferred to Heidelberg University for three semesters.
In 1831, the twenty-year-old returned to Leipzig to begin training as a piano virtuoso with Friedrich Wieck. Wieck had assured his mother that Robert had the talent if he would only practice diligently. However, the dexterity was not enough and Robert overused first his middle finger, then his whole right hand (possibly with a mechanical exercise device), so that he had to bury the dream of a piano virtuoso career.
In 1834, with Wieck, he founded an influential journal for music, which he directed for 10 years and for which he wrote numerous articles. Schumann had an extraordinary gift for language. He published many essays under pseudonyms, including Eusebius (the introverted Schumann) and Florestan (the passionate Schumann).
First psychoses and engagement
In 1833 he experienced his first psychoses. A doctor advised him to marry in order to overcome the crisis with a regulated life. Schumann became engaged to Ernestine von Fricken and memorialized her in his piano work Carneval (Estrella). However, the engagement was broken off again.
This mental illness probably stemmed from a bipolar disorder; occasionally a syphilis disease is mentioned as the cause. Against it speaks that Schumann’s father, one of his siblings and two of his children also had mental problems, which would speak for a genetic cause.
Engagement and marriage to Clara
Schumann had lived in Wieck’s house during his student years and met 9-year-old Clara. They became friends and the friendship turned to love when Clara was 15. At 18, the two became secretly engaged. Since their father was against the marriage, the two fought in court to get permission to marry and the wedding took place in 1840 at the Schönefelder Memorial Church. That year, the two moved into the apartment on Leipzig’s Inselstrasse, where they had an artist’s marriage and received artists such as Liszt and Mendelssohn. While Schumann wanted Clara to focus on her marriage and end her career as a pianist, he supported her in her work as a composer. This year became one of Schumann’s most productive years, called his Liederjahr because of the abundance of Lieder.
In 1841 Schumann composed his first symphony, the Spring Symphony, which Felix Mendelssohn premiered at the old Gewandhaus. It was a great success and Wieck recognized the genius of his son-in-law and sent out conciliatory gestures. Robert, however, remained reserved toward his father-in-law.
In 1844 Schumann hoped to become Mendelssohn’s successor at the Gewandhaus. But their hopes were dashed and the Schumanns moved to Düsseldorf, where Robert had been offered the position of municipal music director.
Felix Mendelssohn:
Mendelssohn’s first appearance as newly appointed Gewandhauskapellmeister in 1835 was triumphant. The 25-year-old Robert Schumann was an enthusiastic witness to his inaugural concert, and the two maintained a friendship from then on. The Gewandhaus would also become the premiere venue for two of Schumann’s symphonies. As a musician and artistic director, Mendelssohns became the prototype of the modern conductor. With structured rehearsals, the conductor became the artistic authority who (newly) equipped with baton tried to implement the composer’s will. It attracted much attention that Mendelssohn, equipped with a phenomenal memory, conducted many of the works by heart. Mendelssohn was perhaps the most respected musician in Europe at the time, and in the 12 years (with interruptions) until his death, he led his Gewandhaus Orchestra to the very highest level of excellence with European appeal. Mendelssohn encouraged young musicians such as Schumann and Berlioz, whom he had met in Rome and with whom he maintained a warm friendship. At a guest concert of the Frenchman in Leipzig, the two exchanged batons.
Mendelssohn realized that the previous musical system produced too much mediocrity. Orchestral musicians had to perform in public houses in the evenings to supplement their salaries, and the training of young musicians was left to chance. Thus, Mendelssohn became decisively involved in improving the pay of orchestra musicians and, in an unprecedented show of strength, founded a Leipzig conservatory with four comrades-in-arms. Among the first teachers were Robert Schumann and his concertmaster and confidant Ferdinand David.
In 1836 Mendelssohn had met his future wife in Frankfurt. The wedding was celebrated in Cécile Jeanrenaud’s hometown of Frankfurt, after which she moved in with Felix in Leipzig, where the two had five children. Cécile sang and played the piano, but her passion was painting. She was a reserved person and thus did not have the role of the classical “muse” of the romantic composer, but gave Felix the support he needed to work through his immense workload. Of Mendelssohn’s three residences in Leipzig, the last still survives; the house at Goldschmidtstrasse 12 (then Königsstrasse) now houses the Mendelssohn Museum.
Mendelssohn remained immensely productive as a composer despite his multiple burdens as husband, father, artistic director, conductor, performing artist, conservatory director, traveling artist. His Leipzig years include the composition of his Elijah oratorio (premiered in Birmingham), his second piano concerto, and the famous violin concerto. Mendelssohn thus entered the hamster wheel of the art world, for which he paid tribute in his later years. The forties showed more and more an exhausted man with burn-out syndrome, which became the trigger for his early death after the death of his sister Fanny.
In May 1847, while on a concert tour, the catastrophic news of his sister Fanny’s death reached him. Mendelssohn was stunned, interrupted all his activities, and escaped on a solitary vacation trip to Switzerland. When he returned, he suffered his first stroke in Leipzig in early October. After further strokes, he lost consciousness and died at his home on November 4, 1847, at the age of 38. After a funeral service in Leipzig, his body was transferred to Berlin on a special train and buried in the Trinity Cemetery in the Mendelssohn family grave next to his beloved sister.
TO THE COMPLETE MENDELSSOHN BIOGRAPHY
Johann Sebastian Bach:
Bach’s appointment as Thomaskantor was rather bumpy. After the death of the previous cantor, the position was offered first to Telemann (as in Weimar) and then to another musician, both of whom declined. Thus Bach was only third choice, or as one councilman put it: “Since one cannot get the best-one must take the middle-one”. So Bach could leave Köthen.
During this time he was responsible for services and special church festivities of four churches. St. Nicholas Church and St. Thomas Church are still standing today, while two others fell victim to the Second World War. Bach’s main duties included the weekly performance of cantatas on Sundays and feast days. Bach put a lot of effort into this right at the beginning and wrote cantatas on a weekly basis. It is said that he composed five years of cantatas, of which three years (i.e. about 200 pieces) have survived. Already in 1724 he composed his most comprehensive work to date, the St. John Passion, and three years later the St. Matthew Passion. In 1730 a conflict arose with the council, since in Bach’s opinion the performance conditions had deteriorated. He now presented the council with his ideas of a “well-stocked church music,” thus handing down to posterity an important documentation of historical performance practice from the master’s hand.
Furthermore, he also had secular duties as music director. In Leipzig, a “Collegium musicum” had been formed (an orchestra of professional musicians and enthusiasts), which gave concerts in the hall and in the garden of a coffee house. For these concerts he wrote various works for orchestra, such as the harpsichord concertos.
The Leipzig period was overshadowed by private tragedies. Between 1726 and 1733, seven of Bach’s children died, in addition to the death of his last sibling, his sister Maria.
The late years of Bach still brought some great late works. These include, for example, “The Art of the Fugue”, the “Goldberg Variations” or the “Musical victims” (see “Bach in Berlin”). Soon thereafter, Bach’s health deteriorated. A severe eye disorder and disturbances in the arm of his writing hand hindered him so much that his creative work came to a virtual standstill. Bach subsequently underwent the famous eye operation performed by the passing controversial ophthalmologist Sir John Taylor in 1750. As with his professional colleague Handel, the result was a fiasco: although his eyesight improved briefly, he suffered a stroke a short time later and Johann Sebastian Bach died on July 28, 1750.
TO THE COMPLETE BACH BIOGRAPHY
Richard Wagner:
Richard Wagner was born in Leipzig as the ninth child, the house where he was born no longer stands. His father died a few months later and his mother married the poet and actor Ludwig Geyer a little later. It was long puzzled whether Ludwig, to whom Richard was very attached, was his biological father, which would have been very piquant because of his Jewish roots. Today it is assumed that this is not the case. After 2 years the family moved to Dresden.
At the age of 16, Wagner heard Fidelio with the Schröder-Devrient in Leipzig, which, according to him, was the deciding factor to become a professional musician. Two years later he began his musical studies at the University of Leipzig, composed his first works and became interested in politics. In 1833 he left Leipzig to gain professional experience.
LINK TO THE COMPLETE WAGNER BIOGRAPHY
Robert and Clara Schumann
Studies and piano training in Leipzig
Schumann, who grew up in nearby Zwickau, moved to Leipzig at the age of 18 to take up the unloved study of law. His mother wanted him to take up the studies, but Robert was mainly concerned with literature and music during this time. He stayed at the university for only one semester and then transferred to Heidelberg University for three semesters.
In 1831, the twenty-year-old returned to Leipzig to begin training as a piano virtuoso with Friedrich Wieck. Wieck had assured his mother that Robert had the talent if he would only practice diligently. However, the dexterity was not enough and Robert overused first his middle finger, then his whole right hand (possibly with a mechanical exercise device), so that he had to bury the dream of a piano virtuoso career.
In 1834, with Wieck, he founded an influential journal for music, which he directed for 10 years and for which he wrote numerous articles. Schumann had an extraordinary gift for language. He published many essays under pseudonyms, including Eusebius (the introverted Schumann) and Florestan (the passionate Schumann).
First psychoses and engagement
In 1833 he experienced his first psychoses. A doctor advised him to marry in order to overcome the crisis with a regulated life. Schumann became engaged to Ernestine von Fricken and memorialized her in his piano work Carneval (Estrella). However, the engagement was broken off again.
This mental illness probably stemmed from a bipolar disorder; occasionally a syphilis disease is mentioned as the cause. Against it speaks that Schumann’s father, one of his siblings and two of his children also had mental problems, which would speak for a genetic cause.
Engagement and marriage to Clara
Schumann had lived in Wieck’s house during his student years and met 9-year-old Clara. They became friends and the friendship turned to love when Clara was 15. At 18, the two became secretly engaged. Since their father was against the marriage, the two fought in court to get permission to marry and the wedding took place in 1840 at the Schönefelder Memorial Church. That year, the two moved into the apartment on Leipzig’s Inselstrasse, where they had an artist’s marriage and received artists such as Liszt and Mendelssohn. While Schumann wanted Clara to focus on her marriage and end her career as a pianist, he supported her in her work as a composer. This year became one of Schumann’s most productive years, called his Liederjahr because of the abundance of Lieder.
In 1841 Schumann composed his first symphony, the Spring Symphony, which Felix Mendelssohn premiered at the old Gewandhaus. It was a great success and Wieck recognized the genius of his son-in-law and sent out conciliatory gestures. Robert, however, remained reserved toward his father-in-law.
In 1844 Schumann hoped to become Mendelssohn’s successor at the Gewandhaus. But their hopes were dashed and the Schumanns moved to Düsseldorf, where Robert had been offered the position of municipal music director.
Felix Mendelssohn:
Mendelssohn’s first appearance as newly appointed Gewandhauskapellmeister in 1835 was triumphant. The 25-year-old Robert Schumann was an enthusiastic witness to his inaugural concert, and the two maintained a friendship from then on. The Gewandhaus would also become the premiere venue for two of Schumann’s symphonies. As a musician and artistic director, Mendelssohns became the prototype of the modern conductor. With structured rehearsals, the conductor became the artistic authority who (newly) equipped with baton tried to implement the composer’s will. It attracted much attention that Mendelssohn, equipped with a phenomenal memory, conducted many of the works by heart. Mendelssohn was perhaps the most respected musician in Europe at the time, and in the 12 years (with interruptions) until his death, he led his Gewandhaus Orchestra to the very highest level of excellence with European appeal. Mendelssohn encouraged young musicians such as Schumann and Berlioz, whom he had met in Rome and with whom he maintained a warm friendship. At a guest concert of the Frenchman in Leipzig, the two exchanged batons.
Mendelssohn realized that the previous musical system produced too much mediocrity. Orchestral musicians had to perform in public houses in the evenings to supplement their salaries, and the training of young musicians was left to chance. Thus, Mendelssohn became decisively involved in improving the pay of orchestra musicians and, in an unprecedented show of strength, founded a Leipzig conservatory with four comrades-in-arms. Among the first teachers were Robert Schumann and his concertmaster and confidant Ferdinand David.
In 1836 Mendelssohn had met his future wife in Frankfurt. The wedding was celebrated in Cécile Jeanrenaud’s hometown of Frankfurt, after which she moved in with Felix in Leipzig, where the two had five children. Cécile sang and played the piano, but her passion was painting. She was a reserved person and thus did not have the role of the classical “muse” of the romantic composer, but gave Felix the support he needed to work through his immense workload. Of Mendelssohn’s three residences in Leipzig, the last still survives; the house at Goldschmidtstrasse 12 (then Königsstrasse) now houses the Mendelssohn Museum.
Mendelssohn remained immensely productive as a composer despite his multiple burdens as husband, father, artistic director, conductor, performing artist, conservatory director, traveling artist. His Leipzig years include the composition of his Elijah oratorio (premiered in Birmingham), his second piano concerto, and the famous violin concerto. Mendelssohn thus entered the hamster wheel of the art world, for which he paid tribute in his later years. The forties showed more and more an exhausted man with burn-out syndrome, which became the trigger for his early death after the death of his sister Fanny.
In May 1847, while on a concert tour, the catastrophic news of his sister Fanny’s death reached him. Mendelssohn was stunned, interrupted all his activities, and escaped on a solitary vacation trip to Switzerland. When he returned, he suffered his first stroke in Leipzig in early October. After further strokes, he lost consciousness and died at his home on November 4, 1847, at the age of 38. After a funeral service in Leipzig, his body was transferred to Berlin on a special train and buried in the Trinity Cemetery in the Mendelssohn family grave next to his beloved sister.
TO THE COMPLETE MENDELSSOHN BIOGRAPHY
Johann Sebastian Bach:
Bach’s appointment as Thomaskantor was rather bumpy. After the death of the previous cantor, the position was offered first to Telemann (as in Weimar) and then to another musician, both of whom declined. Thus Bach was only third choice, or as one councilman put it: “Since one cannot get the best-one must take the middle-one”. So Bach could leave Köthen.
During this time he was responsible for services and special church festivities of four churches. St. Nicholas Church and St. Thomas Church are still standing today, while two others fell victim to the Second World War. Bach’s main duties included the weekly performance of cantatas on Sundays and feast days. Bach put a lot of effort into this right at the beginning and wrote cantatas on a weekly basis. It is said that he composed five years of cantatas, of which three years (i.e. about 200 pieces) have survived. Already in 1724 he composed his most comprehensive work to date, the St. John Passion, and three years later the St. Matthew Passion. In 1730 a conflict arose with the council, since in Bach’s opinion the performance conditions had deteriorated. He now presented the council with his ideas of a “well-stocked church music,” thus handing down to posterity an important documentation of historical performance practice from the master’s hand.
Furthermore, he also had secular duties as music director. In Leipzig, a “Collegium musicum” had been formed (an orchestra of professional musicians and enthusiasts), which gave concerts in the hall and in the garden of a coffee house. For these concerts he wrote various works for orchestra, such as the harpsichord concertos.
The Leipzig period was overshadowed by private tragedies. Between 1726 and 1733, seven of Bach’s children died, in addition to the death of his last sibling, his sister Maria.
The late years of Bach still brought some great late works. These include, for example, “The Art of the Fugue”, the “Goldberg Variations” or the “Musical victims” (see “Bach in Berlin”). Soon thereafter, Bach’s health deteriorated. A severe eye disorder and disturbances in the arm of his writing hand hindered him so much that his creative work came to a virtual standstill. Bach subsequently underwent the famous eye operation performed by the passing controversial ophthalmologist Sir John Taylor in 1750. As with his professional colleague Handel, the result was a fiasco: although his eyesight improved briefly, he suffered a stroke a short time later and Johann Sebastian Bach died on July 28, 1750.
TO THE COMPLETE BACH BIOGRAPHY
Richard Wagner:
Richard Wagner was born in Leipzig as the ninth child, the house where he was born no longer stands. His father died a few months later and his mother married the poet and actor Ludwig Geyer a little later. It was long puzzled whether Ludwig, to whom Richard was very attached, was his biological father, which would have been very piquant because of his Jewish roots. Today it is assumed that this is not the case. After 2 years the family moved to Dresden.
At the age of 16, Wagner heard Fidelio with the Schröder-Devrient in Leipzig, which, according to him, was the deciding factor to become a professional musician. Two years later he began his musical studies at the University of Leipzig, composed his first works and became interested in politics. In 1833 he left Leipzig to gain professional experience.
LINK TO THE COMPLETE WAGNER BIOGRAPHY
Robert and Clara Schumann
Studies and piano training in Leipzig
Schumann, who grew up in nearby Zwickau, moved to Leipzig at the age of 18 to take up the unloved study of law. His mother wanted him to take up the studies, but Robert was mainly concerned with literature and music during this time. He stayed at the university for only one semester and then transferred to Heidelberg University for three semesters.
In 1831, the twenty-year-old returned to Leipzig to begin training as a piano virtuoso with Friedrich Wieck. Wieck had assured his mother that Robert had the talent if he would only practice diligently. However, the dexterity was not enough and Robert overused first his middle finger, then his whole right hand (possibly with a mechanical exercise device), so that he had to bury the dream of a piano virtuoso career.
In 1834, with Wieck, he founded an influential journal for music, which he directed for 10 years and for which he wrote numerous articles. Schumann had an extraordinary gift for language. He published many essays under pseudonyms, including Eusebius (the introverted Schumann) and Florestan (the passionate Schumann).
First psychoses and engagement
In 1833 he experienced his first psychoses. A doctor advised him to marry in order to overcome the crisis with a regulated life. Schumann became engaged to Ernestine von Fricken and memorialized her in his piano work Carneval (Estrella). However, the engagement was broken off again.
This mental illness probably stemmed from a bipolar disorder; occasionally a syphilis disease is mentioned as the cause. Against it speaks that Schumann’s father, one of his siblings and two of his children also had mental problems, which would speak for a genetic cause.
Engagement and marriage to Clara
Schumann had lived in Wieck’s house during his student years and met 9-year-old Clara. They became friends and the friendship turned to love when Clara was 15. At 18, the two became secretly engaged. Since their father was against the marriage, the two fought in court to get permission to marry and the wedding took place in 1840 at the Schönefelder Memorial Church. That year, the two moved into the apartment on Leipzig’s Inselstrasse, where they had an artist’s marriage and received artists such as Liszt and Mendelssohn. While Schumann wanted Clara to focus on her marriage and end her career as a pianist, he supported her in her work as a composer. This year became one of Schumann’s most productive years, called his Liederjahr because of the abundance of Lieder.
In 1841 Schumann composed his first symphony, the Spring Symphony, which Felix Mendelssohn premiered at the old Gewandhaus. It was a great success and Wieck recognized the genius of his son-in-law and sent out conciliatory gestures. Robert, however, remained reserved toward his father-in-law.
In 1844 Schumann hoped to become Mendelssohn’s successor at the Gewandhaus. But their hopes were dashed and the Schumanns moved to Düsseldorf, where Robert had been offered the position of municipal music director.
Felix Mendelssohn:
Mendelssohn’s first appearance as newly appointed Gewandhauskapellmeister in 1835 was triumphant. The 25-year-old Robert Schumann was an enthusiastic witness to his inaugural concert, and the two maintained a friendship from then on. The Gewandhaus would also become the premiere venue for two of Schumann’s symphonies. As a musician and artistic director, Mendelssohns became the prototype of the modern conductor. With structured rehearsals, the conductor became the artistic authority who (newly) equipped with baton tried to implement the composer’s will. It attracted much attention that Mendelssohn, equipped with a phenomenal memory, conducted many of the works by heart. Mendelssohn was perhaps the most respected musician in Europe at the time, and in the 12 years (with interruptions) until his death, he led his Gewandhaus Orchestra to the very highest level of excellence with European appeal. Mendelssohn encouraged young musicians such as Schumann and Berlioz, whom he had met in Rome and with whom he maintained a warm friendship. At a guest concert of the Frenchman in Leipzig, the two exchanged batons.
Mendelssohn realized that the previous musical system produced too much mediocrity. Orchestral musicians had to perform in public houses in the evenings to supplement their salaries, and the training of young musicians was left to chance. Thus, Mendelssohn became decisively involved in improving the pay of orchestra musicians and, in an unprecedented show of strength, founded a Leipzig conservatory with four comrades-in-arms. Among the first teachers were Robert Schumann and his concertmaster and confidant Ferdinand David.
In 1836 Mendelssohn had met his future wife in Frankfurt. The wedding was celebrated in Cécile Jeanrenaud’s hometown of Frankfurt, after which she moved in with Felix in Leipzig, where the two had five children. Cécile sang and played the piano, but her passion was painting. She was a reserved person and thus did not have the role of the classical “muse” of the romantic composer, but gave Felix the support he needed to work through his immense workload. Of Mendelssohn’s three residences in Leipzig, the last still survives; the house at Goldschmidtstrasse 12 (then Königsstrasse) now houses the Mendelssohn Museum.
Mendelssohn remained immensely productive as a composer despite his multiple burdens as husband, father, artistic director, conductor, performing artist, conservatory director, traveling artist. His Leipzig years include the composition of his Elijah oratorio (premiered in Birmingham), his second piano concerto, and the famous violin concerto. Mendelssohn thus entered the hamster wheel of the art world, for which he paid tribute in his later years. The forties showed more and more an exhausted man with burn-out syndrome, which became the trigger for his early death after the death of his sister Fanny.
In May 1847, while on a concert tour, the catastrophic news of his sister Fanny’s death reached him. Mendelssohn was stunned, interrupted all his activities, and escaped on a solitary vacation trip to Switzerland. When he returned, he suffered his first stroke in Leipzig in early October. After further strokes, he lost consciousness and died at his home on November 4, 1847, at the age of 38. After a funeral service in Leipzig, his body was transferred to Berlin on a special train and buried in the Trinity Cemetery in the Mendelssohn family grave next to his beloved sister.
TO THE COMPLETE MENDELSSOHN BIOGRAPHY
NIKOLAI CHURCH
Johann Sebastian Bach:
Bach’s appointment as Thomaskantor was rather bumpy. After the death of the previous cantor, the position was offered first to Telemann (as in Weimar) and then to another musician, both of whom declined. Thus Bach was only third choice, or as one councilman put it: “Since one cannot get the best-one must take the middle-one”. So Bach could leave Köthen.
During this time he was responsible for services and special church festivities of four churches. St. Nicholas Church and St. Thomas Church are still standing today, while two others fell victim to the Second World War. Bach’s main duties included the weekly performance of cantatas on Sundays and feast days. Bach put a lot of effort into this right at the beginning and wrote cantatas on a weekly basis. It is said that he composed five years of cantatas, of which three years (i.e. about 200 pieces) have survived. Already in 1724 he composed his most comprehensive work to date, the St. John Passion, and three years later the St. Matthew Passion. In 1730 a conflict arose with the council, since in Bach’s opinion the performance conditions had deteriorated. He now presented the council with his ideas of a “well-stocked church music,” thus handing down to posterity an important documentation of historical performance practice from the master’s hand.
Furthermore, he also had secular duties as music director. In Leipzig, a “Collegium musicum” had been formed (an orchestra of professional musicians and enthusiasts), which gave concerts in the hall and in the garden of a coffee house. For these concerts he wrote various works for orchestra, such as the harpsichord concertos.
The Leipzig period was overshadowed by private tragedies. Between 1726 and 1733, seven of Bach’s children died, in addition to the death of his last sibling, his sister Maria.
The late years of Bach still brought some great late works. These include, for example, “The Art of the Fugue”, the “Goldberg Variations” or the “Musical victims” (see “Bach in Berlin”). Soon thereafter, Bach’s health deteriorated. A severe eye disorder and disturbances in the arm of his writing hand hindered him so much that his creative work came to a virtual standstill. Bach subsequently underwent the famous eye operation performed by the passing controversial ophthalmologist Sir John Taylor in 1750. As with his professional colleague Handel, the result was a fiasco: although his eyesight improved briefly, he suffered a stroke a short time later and Johann Sebastian Bach died on July 28, 1750.
TO THE COMPLETE BACH BIOGRAPHY
Richard Wagner:
Richard Wagner was born in Leipzig as the ninth child, the house where he was born no longer stands. His father died a few months later and his mother married the poet and actor Ludwig Geyer a little later. It was long puzzled whether Ludwig, to whom Richard was very attached, was his biological father, which would have been very piquant because of his Jewish roots. Today it is assumed that this is not the case. After 2 years the family moved to Dresden.
At the age of 16, Wagner heard Fidelio with the Schröder-Devrient in Leipzig, which, according to him, was the deciding factor to become a professional musician. Two years later he began his musical studies at the University of Leipzig, composed his first works and became interested in politics. In 1833 he left Leipzig to gain professional experience.
LINK TO THE COMPLETE WAGNER BIOGRAPHY
Robert and Clara Schumann
Studies and piano training in Leipzig
Schumann, who grew up in nearby Zwickau, moved to Leipzig at the age of 18 to take up the unloved study of law. His mother wanted him to take up the studies, but Robert was mainly concerned with literature and music during this time. He stayed at the university for only one semester and then transferred to Heidelberg University for three semesters.
In 1831, the twenty-year-old returned to Leipzig to begin training as a piano virtuoso with Friedrich Wieck. Wieck had assured his mother that Robert had the talent if he would only practice diligently. However, the dexterity was not enough and Robert overused first his middle finger, then his whole right hand (possibly with a mechanical exercise device), so that he had to bury the dream of a piano virtuoso career.
In 1834, with Wieck, he founded an influential journal for music, which he directed for 10 years and for which he wrote numerous articles. Schumann had an extraordinary gift for language. He published many essays under pseudonyms, including Eusebius (the introverted Schumann) and Florestan (the passionate Schumann).
First psychoses and engagement
In 1833 he experienced his first psychoses. A doctor advised him to marry in order to overcome the crisis with a regulated life. Schumann became engaged to Ernestine von Fricken and memorialized her in his piano work Carneval (Estrella). However, the engagement was broken off again.
This mental illness probably stemmed from a bipolar disorder; occasionally a syphilis disease is mentioned as the cause. Against it speaks that Schumann’s father, one of his siblings and two of his children also had mental problems, which would speak for a genetic cause.
Engagement and marriage to Clara
Schumann had lived in Wieck’s house during his student years and met 9-year-old Clara. They became friends and the friendship turned to love when Clara was 15. At 18, the two became secretly engaged. Since their father was against the marriage, the two fought in court to get permission to marry and the wedding took place in 1840 at the Schönefelder Memorial Church. That year, the two moved into the apartment on Leipzig’s Inselstrasse, where they had an artist’s marriage and received artists such as Liszt and Mendelssohn. While Schumann wanted Clara to focus on her marriage and end her career as a pianist, he supported her in her work as a composer. This year became one of Schumann’s most productive years, called his Liederjahr because of the abundance of Lieder.
In 1841 Schumann composed his first symphony, the Spring Symphony, which Felix Mendelssohn premiered at the old Gewandhaus. It was a great success and Wieck recognized the genius of his son-in-law and sent out conciliatory gestures. Robert, however, remained reserved toward his father-in-law.
In 1844 Schumann hoped to become Mendelssohn’s successor at the Gewandhaus. But their hopes were dashed and the Schumanns moved to Düsseldorf, where Robert had been offered the position of municipal music director.
Felix Mendelssohn:
Mendelssohn’s first appearance as newly appointed Gewandhauskapellmeister in 1835 was triumphant. The 25-year-old Robert Schumann was an enthusiastic witness to his inaugural concert, and the two maintained a friendship from then on. The Gewandhaus would also become the premiere venue for two of Schumann’s symphonies. As a musician and artistic director, Mendelssohns became the prototype of the modern conductor. With structured rehearsals, the conductor became the artistic authority who (newly) equipped with baton tried to implement the composer’s will. It attracted much attention that Mendelssohn, equipped with a phenomenal memory, conducted many of the works by heart. Mendelssohn was perhaps the most respected musician in Europe at the time, and in the 12 years (with interruptions) until his death, he led his Gewandhaus Orchestra to the very highest level of excellence with European appeal. Mendelssohn encouraged young musicians such as Schumann and Berlioz, whom he had met in Rome and with whom he maintained a warm friendship. At a guest concert of the Frenchman in Leipzig, the two exchanged batons.
Mendelssohn realized that the previous musical system produced too much mediocrity. Orchestral musicians had to perform in public houses in the evenings to supplement their salaries, and the training of young musicians was left to chance. Thus, Mendelssohn became decisively involved in improving the pay of orchestra musicians and, in an unprecedented show of strength, founded a Leipzig conservatory with four comrades-in-arms. Among the first teachers were Robert Schumann and his concertmaster and confidant Ferdinand David.
In 1836 Mendelssohn had met his future wife in Frankfurt. The wedding was celebrated in Cécile Jeanrenaud’s hometown of Frankfurt, after which she moved in with Felix in Leipzig, where the two had five children. Cécile sang and played the piano, but her passion was painting. She was a reserved person and thus did not have the role of the classical “muse” of the romantic composer, but gave Felix the support he needed to work through his immense workload. Of Mendelssohn’s three residences in Leipzig, the last still survives; the house at Goldschmidtstrasse 12 (then Königsstrasse) now houses the Mendelssohn Museum.
Mendelssohn remained immensely productive as a composer despite his multiple burdens as husband, father, artistic director, conductor, performing artist, conservatory director, traveling artist. His Leipzig years include the composition of his Elijah oratorio (premiered in Birmingham), his second piano concerto, and the famous violin concerto. Mendelssohn thus entered the hamster wheel of the art world, for which he paid tribute in his later years. The forties showed more and more an exhausted man with burn-out syndrome, which became the trigger for his early death after the death of his sister Fanny.
In May 1847, while on a concert tour, the catastrophic news of his sister Fanny’s death reached him. Mendelssohn was stunned, interrupted all his activities, and escaped on a solitary vacation trip to Switzerland. When he returned, he suffered his first stroke in Leipzig in early October. After further strokes, he lost consciousness and died at his home on November 4, 1847, at the age of 38. After a funeral service in Leipzig, his body was transferred to Berlin on a special train and buried in the Trinity Cemetery in the Mendelssohn family grave next to his beloved sister.
TO THE COMPLETE MENDELSSOHN BIOGRAPHY
https://www.stadtgeschichtliches-museum-leipzig.de/besuch/unsere-haeuser/altes-rathaus/
Johann Sebastian Bach:
Bach’s appointment as Thomaskantor was rather bumpy. After the death of the previous cantor, the position was offered first to Telemann (as in Weimar) and then to another musician, both of whom declined. Thus Bach was only third choice, or as one councilman put it: “Since one cannot get the best-one must take the middle-one”. So Bach could leave Köthen.
During this time he was responsible for services and special church festivities of four churches. St. Nicholas Church and St. Thomas Church are still standing today, while two others fell victim to the Second World War. Bach’s main duties included the weekly performance of cantatas on Sundays and feast days. Bach put a lot of effort into this right at the beginning and wrote cantatas on a weekly basis. It is said that he composed five years of cantatas, of which three years (i.e. about 200 pieces) have survived. Already in 1724 he composed his most comprehensive work to date, the St. John Passion, and three years later the St. Matthew Passion. In 1730 a conflict arose with the council, since in Bach’s opinion the performance conditions had deteriorated. He now presented the council with his ideas of a “well-stocked church music,” thus handing down to posterity an important documentation of historical performance practice from the master’s hand.
Furthermore, he also had secular duties as music director. In Leipzig, a “Collegium musicum” had been formed (an orchestra of professional musicians and enthusiasts), which gave concerts in the hall and in the garden of a coffee house. For these concerts he wrote various works for orchestra, such as the harpsichord concertos.
The Leipzig period was overshadowed by private tragedies. Between 1726 and 1733, seven of Bach’s children died, in addition to the death of his last sibling, his sister Maria.
The late years of Bach still brought some great late works. These include, for example, “The Art of the Fugue”, the “Goldberg Variations” or the “Musical victims” (see “Bach in Berlin”). Soon thereafter, Bach’s health deteriorated. A severe eye disorder and disturbances in the arm of his writing hand hindered him so much that his creative work came to a virtual standstill. Bach subsequently underwent the famous eye operation performed by the passing controversial ophthalmologist Sir John Taylor in 1750. As with his professional colleague Handel, the result was a fiasco: although his eyesight improved briefly, he suffered a stroke a short time later and Johann Sebastian Bach died on July 28, 1750.
TO THE COMPLETE BACH BIOGRAPHY
Richard Wagner:
Richard Wagner was born in Leipzig as the ninth child, the house where he was born no longer stands. His father died a few months later and his mother married the poet and actor Ludwig Geyer a little later. It was long puzzled whether Ludwig, to whom Richard was very attached, was his biological father, which would have been very piquant because of his Jewish roots. Today it is assumed that this is not the case. After 2 years the family moved to Dresden.
At the age of 16, Wagner heard Fidelio with the Schröder-Devrient in Leipzig, which, according to him, was the deciding factor to become a professional musician. Two years later he began his musical studies at the University of Leipzig, composed his first works and became interested in politics. In 1833 he left Leipzig to gain professional experience.
LINK TO THE COMPLETE WAGNER BIOGRAPHY
Robert and Clara Schumann
Studies and piano training in Leipzig
Schumann, who grew up in nearby Zwickau, moved to Leipzig at the age of 18 to take up the unloved study of law. His mother wanted him to take up the studies, but Robert was mainly concerned with literature and music during this time. He stayed at the university for only one semester and then transferred to Heidelberg University for three semesters.
In 1831, the twenty-year-old returned to Leipzig to begin training as a piano virtuoso with Friedrich Wieck. Wieck had assured his mother that Robert had the talent if he would only practice diligently. However, the dexterity was not enough and Robert overused first his middle finger, then his whole right hand (possibly with a mechanical exercise device), so that he had to bury the dream of a piano virtuoso career.
In 1834, with Wieck, he founded an influential journal for music, which he directed for 10 years and for which he wrote numerous articles. Schumann had an extraordinary gift for language. He published many essays under pseudonyms, including Eusebius (the introverted Schumann) and Florestan (the passionate Schumann).
First psychoses and engagement
In 1833 he experienced his first psychoses. A doctor advised him to marry in order to overcome the crisis with a regulated life. Schumann became engaged to Ernestine von Fricken and memorialized her in his piano work Carneval (Estrella). However, the engagement was broken off again.
This mental illness probably stemmed from a bipolar disorder; occasionally a syphilis disease is mentioned as the cause. Against it speaks that Schumann’s father, one of his siblings and two of his children also had mental problems, which would speak for a genetic cause.
Engagement and marriage to Clara
Schumann had lived in Wieck’s house during his student years and met 9-year-old Clara. They became friends and the friendship turned to love when Clara was 15. At 18, the two became secretly engaged. Since their father was against the marriage, the two fought in court to get permission to marry and the wedding took place in 1840 at the Schönefelder Memorial Church. That year, the two moved into the apartment on Leipzig’s Inselstrasse, where they had an artist’s marriage and received artists such as Liszt and Mendelssohn. While Schumann wanted Clara to focus on her marriage and end her career as a pianist, he supported her in her work as a composer. This year became one of Schumann’s most productive years, called his Liederjahr because of the abundance of Lieder.
In 1841 Schumann composed his first symphony, the Spring Symphony, which Felix Mendelssohn premiered at the old Gewandhaus. It was a great success and Wieck recognized the genius of his son-in-law and sent out conciliatory gestures. Robert, however, remained reserved toward his father-in-law.
In 1844 Schumann hoped to become Mendelssohn’s successor at the Gewandhaus. But their hopes were dashed and the Schumanns moved to Düsseldorf, where Robert had been offered the position of municipal music director.
Felix Mendelssohn:
Mendelssohn’s first appearance as newly appointed Gewandhauskapellmeister in 1835 was triumphant. The 25-year-old Robert Schumann was an enthusiastic witness to his inaugural concert, and the two maintained a friendship from then on. The Gewandhaus would also become the premiere venue for two of Schumann’s symphonies. As a musician and artistic director, Mendelssohns became the prototype of the modern conductor. With structured rehearsals, the conductor became the artistic authority who (newly) equipped with baton tried to implement the composer’s will. It attracted much attention that Mendelssohn, equipped with a phenomenal memory, conducted many of the works by heart. Mendelssohn was perhaps the most respected musician in Europe at the time, and in the 12 years (with interruptions) until his death, he led his Gewandhaus Orchestra to the very highest level of excellence with European appeal. Mendelssohn encouraged young musicians such as Schumann and Berlioz, whom he had met in Rome and with whom he maintained a warm friendship. At a guest concert of the Frenchman in Leipzig, the two exchanged batons.
Mendelssohn realized that the previous musical system produced too much mediocrity. Orchestral musicians had to perform in public houses in the evenings to supplement their salaries, and the training of young musicians was left to chance. Thus, Mendelssohn became decisively involved in improving the pay of orchestra musicians and, in an unprecedented show of strength, founded a Leipzig conservatory with four comrades-in-arms. Among the first teachers were Robert Schumann and his concertmaster and confidant Ferdinand David.
In 1836 Mendelssohn had met his future wife in Frankfurt. The wedding was celebrated in Cécile Jeanrenaud’s hometown of Frankfurt, after which she moved in with Felix in Leipzig, where the two had five children. Cécile sang and played the piano, but her passion was painting. She was a reserved person and thus did not have the role of the classical “muse” of the romantic composer, but gave Felix the support he needed to work through his immense workload. Of Mendelssohn’s three residences in Leipzig, the last still survives; the house at Goldschmidtstrasse 12 (then Königsstrasse) now houses the Mendelssohn Museum.
Mendelssohn remained immensely productive as a composer despite his multiple burdens as husband, father, artistic director, conductor, performing artist, conservatory director, traveling artist. His Leipzig years include the composition of his Elijah oratorio (premiered in Birmingham), his second piano concerto, and the famous violin concerto. Mendelssohn thus entered the hamster wheel of the art world, for which he paid tribute in his later years. The forties showed more and more an exhausted man with burn-out syndrome, which became the trigger for his early death after the death of his sister Fanny.
In May 1847, while on a concert tour, the catastrophic news of his sister Fanny’s death reached him. Mendelssohn was stunned, interrupted all his activities, and escaped on a solitary vacation trip to Switzerland. When he returned, he suffered his first stroke in Leipzig in early October. After further strokes, he lost consciousness and died at his home on November 4, 1847, at the age of 38. After a funeral service in Leipzig, his body was transferred to Berlin on a special train and buried in the Trinity Cemetery in the Mendelssohn family grave next to his beloved sister.
TO THE COMPLETE MENDELSSOHN BIOGRAPHY
https://www.mendelssohn-stiftung.de/
Johann Sebastian Bach:
Bach’s appointment as Thomaskantor was rather bumpy. After the death of the previous cantor, the position was offered first to Telemann (as in Weimar) and then to another musician, both of whom declined. Thus Bach was only third choice, or as one councilman put it: “Since one cannot get the best-one must take the middle-one”. So Bach could leave Köthen.
During this time he was responsible for services and special church festivities of four churches. St. Nicholas Church and St. Thomas Church are still standing today, while two others fell victim to the Second World War. Bach’s main duties included the weekly performance of cantatas on Sundays and feast days. Bach put a lot of effort into this right at the beginning and wrote cantatas on a weekly basis. It is said that he composed five years of cantatas, of which three years (i.e. about 200 pieces) have survived. Already in 1724 he composed his most comprehensive work to date, the St. John Passion, and three years later the St. Matthew Passion. In 1730 a conflict arose with the council, since in Bach’s opinion the performance conditions had deteriorated. He now presented the council with his ideas of a “well-stocked church music,” thus handing down to posterity an important documentation of historical performance practice from the master’s hand.
Furthermore, he also had secular duties as music director. In Leipzig, a “Collegium musicum” had been formed (an orchestra of professional musicians and enthusiasts), which gave concerts in the hall and in the garden of a coffee house. For these concerts he wrote various works for orchestra, such as the harpsichord concertos.
The Leipzig period was overshadowed by private tragedies. Between 1726 and 1733, seven of Bach’s children died, in addition to the death of his last sibling, his sister Maria.
The late years of Bach still brought some great late works. These include, for example, “The Art of the Fugue”, the “Goldberg Variations” or the “Musical victims” (see “Bach in Berlin”). Soon thereafter, Bach’s health deteriorated. A severe eye disorder and disturbances in the arm of his writing hand hindered him so much that his creative work came to a virtual standstill. Bach subsequently underwent the famous eye operation performed by the passing controversial ophthalmologist Sir John Taylor in 1750. As with his professional colleague Handel, the result was a fiasco: although his eyesight improved briefly, he suffered a stroke a short time later and Johann Sebastian Bach died on July 28, 1750.
TO THE COMPLETE BACH BIOGRAPHY
Richard Wagner:
Richard Wagner was born in Leipzig as the ninth child, the house where he was born no longer stands. His father died a few months later and his mother married the poet and actor Ludwig Geyer a little later. It was long puzzled whether Ludwig, to whom Richard was very attached, was his biological father, which would have been very piquant because of his Jewish roots. Today it is assumed that this is not the case. After 2 years the family moved to Dresden.
At the age of 16, Wagner heard Fidelio with the Schröder-Devrient in Leipzig, which, according to him, was the deciding factor to become a professional musician. Two years later he began his musical studies at the University of Leipzig, composed his first works and became interested in politics. In 1833 he left Leipzig to gain professional experience.
LINK TO THE COMPLETE WAGNER BIOGRAPHY
Robert and Clara Schumann
Studies and piano training in Leipzig
Schumann, who grew up in nearby Zwickau, moved to Leipzig at the age of 18 to take up the unloved study of law. His mother wanted him to take up the studies, but Robert was mainly concerned with literature and music during this time. He stayed at the university for only one semester and then transferred to Heidelberg University for three semesters.
In 1831, the twenty-year-old returned to Leipzig to begin training as a piano virtuoso with Friedrich Wieck. Wieck had assured his mother that Robert had the talent if he would only practice diligently. However, the dexterity was not enough and Robert overused first his middle finger, then his whole right hand (possibly with a mechanical exercise device), so that he had to bury the dream of a piano virtuoso career.
In 1834, with Wieck, he founded an influential journal for music, which he directed for 10 years and for which he wrote numerous articles. Schumann had an extraordinary gift for language. He published many essays under pseudonyms, including Eusebius (the introverted Schumann) and Florestan (the passionate Schumann).
First psychoses and engagement
In 1833 he experienced his first psychoses. A doctor advised him to marry in order to overcome the crisis with a regulated life. Schumann became engaged to Ernestine von Fricken and memorialized her in his piano work Carneval (Estrella). However, the engagement was broken off again.
This mental illness probably stemmed from a bipolar disorder; occasionally a syphilis disease is mentioned as the cause. Against it speaks that Schumann’s father, one of his siblings and two of his children also had mental problems, which would speak for a genetic cause.
Engagement and marriage to Clara
Schumann had lived in Wieck’s house during his student years and met 9-year-old Clara. They became friends and the friendship turned to love when Clara was 15. At 18, the two became secretly engaged. Since their father was against the marriage, the two fought in court to get permission to marry and the wedding took place in 1840 at the Schönefelder Memorial Church. That year, the two moved into the apartment on Leipzig’s Inselstrasse, where they had an artist’s marriage and received artists such as Liszt and Mendelssohn. While Schumann wanted Clara to focus on her marriage and end her career as a pianist, he supported her in her work as a composer. This year became one of Schumann’s most productive years, called his Liederjahr because of the abundance of Lieder.
In 1841 Schumann composed his first symphony, the Spring Symphony, which Felix Mendelssohn premiered at the old Gewandhaus. It was a great success and Wieck recognized the genius of his son-in-law and sent out conciliatory gestures. Robert, however, remained reserved toward his father-in-law.
In 1844 Schumann hoped to become Mendelssohn’s successor at the Gewandhaus. But their hopes were dashed and the Schumanns moved to Düsseldorf, where Robert had been offered the position of municipal music director.
Felix Mendelssohn:
Mendelssohn’s first appearance as newly appointed Gewandhauskapellmeister in 1835 was triumphant. The 25-year-old Robert Schumann was an enthusiastic witness to his inaugural concert, and the two maintained a friendship from then on. The Gewandhaus would also become the premiere venue for two of Schumann’s symphonies. As a musician and artistic director, Mendelssohns became the prototype of the modern conductor. With structured rehearsals, the conductor became the artistic authority who (newly) equipped with baton tried to implement the composer’s will. It attracted much attention that Mendelssohn, equipped with a phenomenal memory, conducted many of the works by heart. Mendelssohn was perhaps the most respected musician in Europe at the time, and in the 12 years (with interruptions) until his death, he led his Gewandhaus Orchestra to the very highest level of excellence with European appeal. Mendelssohn encouraged young musicians such as Schumann and Berlioz, whom he had met in Rome and with whom he maintained a warm friendship. At a guest concert of the Frenchman in Leipzig, the two exchanged batons.
Mendelssohn realized that the previous musical system produced too much mediocrity. Orchestral musicians had to perform in public houses in the evenings to supplement their salaries, and the training of young musicians was left to chance. Thus, Mendelssohn became decisively involved in improving the pay of orchestra musicians and, in an unprecedented show of strength, founded a Leipzig conservatory with four comrades-in-arms. Among the first teachers were Robert Schumann and his concertmaster and confidant Ferdinand David.
In 1836 Mendelssohn had met his future wife in Frankfurt. The wedding was celebrated in Cécile Jeanrenaud’s hometown of Frankfurt, after which she moved in with Felix in Leipzig, where the two had five children. Cécile sang and played the piano, but her passion was painting. She was a reserved person and thus did not have the role of the classical “muse” of the romantic composer, but gave Felix the support he needed to work through his immense workload. Of Mendelssohn’s three residences in Leipzig, the last still survives; the house at Goldschmidtstrasse 12 (then Königsstrasse) now houses the Mendelssohn Museum.
Mendelssohn remained immensely productive as a composer despite his multiple burdens as husband, father, artistic director, conductor, performing artist, conservatory director, traveling artist. His Leipzig years include the composition of his Elijah oratorio (premiered in Birmingham), his second piano concerto, and the famous violin concerto. Mendelssohn thus entered the hamster wheel of the art world, for which he paid tribute in his later years. The forties showed more and more an exhausted man with burn-out syndrome, which became the trigger for his early death after the death of his sister Fanny.
In May 1847, while on a concert tour, the catastrophic news of his sister Fanny’s death reached him. Mendelssohn was stunned, interrupted all his activities, and escaped on a solitary vacation trip to Switzerland. When he returned, he suffered his first stroke in Leipzig in early October. After further strokes, he lost consciousness and died at his home on November 4, 1847, at the age of 38. After a funeral service in Leipzig, his body was transferred to Berlin on a special train and buried in the Trinity Cemetery in the Mendelssohn family grave next to his beloved sister.
TO THE COMPLETE MENDELSSOHN BIOGRAPHY
https://www.bachmuseumleipzig.de/de/bach-museum
Johann Sebastian Bach:
Bach’s appointment as Thomaskantor was rather bumpy. After the death of the previous cantor, the position was offered first to Telemann (as in Weimar) and then to another musician, both of whom declined. Thus Bach was only third choice, or as one councilman put it: “Since one cannot get the best-one must take the middle-one”. So Bach could leave Köthen.
During this time he was responsible for services and special church festivities of four churches. St. Nicholas Church and St. Thomas Church are still standing today, while two others fell victim to the Second World War. Bach’s main duties included the weekly performance of cantatas on Sundays and feast days. Bach put a lot of effort into this right at the beginning and wrote cantatas on a weekly basis. It is said that he composed five years of cantatas, of which three years (i.e. about 200 pieces) have survived. Already in 1724 he composed his most comprehensive work to date, the St. John Passion, and three years later the St. Matthew Passion. In 1730 a conflict arose with the council, since in Bach’s opinion the performance conditions had deteriorated. He now presented the council with his ideas of a “well-stocked church music,” thus handing down to posterity an important documentation of historical performance practice from the master’s hand.
Furthermore, he also had secular duties as music director. In Leipzig, a “Collegium musicum” had been formed (an orchestra of professional musicians and enthusiasts), which gave concerts in the hall and in the garden of a coffee house. For these concerts he wrote various works for orchestra, such as the harpsichord concertos.
The Leipzig period was overshadowed by private tragedies. Between 1726 and 1733, seven of Bach’s children died, in addition to the death of his last sibling, his sister Maria.
The late years of Bach still brought some great late works. These include, for example, “The Art of the Fugue”, the “Goldberg Variations” or the “Musical victims” (see “Bach in Berlin”). Soon thereafter, Bach’s health deteriorated. A severe eye disorder and disturbances in the arm of his writing hand hindered him so much that his creative work came to a virtual standstill. Bach subsequently underwent the famous eye operation performed by the passing controversial ophthalmologist Sir John Taylor in 1750. As with his professional colleague Handel, the result was a fiasco: although his eyesight improved briefly, he suffered a stroke a short time later and Johann Sebastian Bach died on July 28, 1750.
TO THE COMPLETE BACH BIOGRAPHY
Richard Wagner:
Richard Wagner was born in Leipzig as the ninth child, the house where he was born no longer stands. His father died a few months later and his mother married the poet and actor Ludwig Geyer a little later. It was long puzzled whether Ludwig, to whom Richard was very attached, was his biological father, which would have been very piquant because of his Jewish roots. Today it is assumed that this is not the case. After 2 years the family moved to Dresden.
At the age of 16, Wagner heard Fidelio with the Schröder-Devrient in Leipzig, which, according to him, was the deciding factor to become a professional musician. Two years later he began his musical studies at the University of Leipzig, composed his first works and became interested in politics. In 1833 he left Leipzig to gain professional experience.
LINK TO THE COMPLETE WAGNER BIOGRAPHY
Robert and Clara Schumann
Studies and piano training in Leipzig
Schumann, who grew up in nearby Zwickau, moved to Leipzig at the age of 18 to take up the unloved study of law. His mother wanted him to take up the studies, but Robert was mainly concerned with literature and music during this time. He stayed at the university for only one semester and then transferred to Heidelberg University for three semesters.
In 1831, the twenty-year-old returned to Leipzig to begin training as a piano virtuoso with Friedrich Wieck. Wieck had assured his mother that Robert had the talent if he would only practice diligently. However, the dexterity was not enough and Robert overused first his middle finger, then his whole right hand (possibly with a mechanical exercise device), so that he had to bury the dream of a piano virtuoso career.
In 1834, with Wieck, he founded an influential journal for music, which he directed for 10 years and for which he wrote numerous articles. Schumann had an extraordinary gift for language. He published many essays under pseudonyms, including Eusebius (the introverted Schumann) and Florestan (the passionate Schumann).
First psychoses and engagement
In 1833 he experienced his first psychoses. A doctor advised him to marry in order to overcome the crisis with a regulated life. Schumann became engaged to Ernestine von Fricken and memorialized her in his piano work Carneval (Estrella). However, the engagement was broken off again.
This mental illness probably stemmed from a bipolar disorder; occasionally a syphilis disease is mentioned as the cause. Against it speaks that Schumann’s father, one of his siblings and two of his children also had mental problems, which would speak for a genetic cause.
Engagement and marriage to Clara
Schumann had lived in Wieck’s house during his student years and met 9-year-old Clara. They became friends and the friendship turned to love when Clara was 15. At 18, the two became secretly engaged. Since their father was against the marriage, the two fought in court to get permission to marry and the wedding took place in 1840 at the Schönefelder Memorial Church. That year, the two moved into the apartment on Leipzig’s Inselstrasse, where they had an artist’s marriage and received artists such as Liszt and Mendelssohn. While Schumann wanted Clara to focus on her marriage and end her career as a pianist, he supported her in her work as a composer. This year became one of Schumann’s most productive years, called his Liederjahr because of the abundance of Lieder.
In 1841 Schumann composed his first symphony, the Spring Symphony, which Felix Mendelssohn premiered at the old Gewandhaus. It was a great success and Wieck recognized the genius of his son-in-law and sent out conciliatory gestures. Robert, however, remained reserved toward his father-in-law.
In 1844 Schumann hoped to become Mendelssohn’s successor at the Gewandhaus. But their hopes were dashed and the Schumanns moved to Düsseldorf, where Robert had been offered the position of municipal music director.
Felix Mendelssohn:
Mendelssohn’s first appearance as newly appointed Gewandhauskapellmeister in 1835 was triumphant. The 25-year-old Robert Schumann was an enthusiastic witness to his inaugural concert, and the two maintained a friendship from then on. The Gewandhaus would also become the premiere venue for two of Schumann’s symphonies. As a musician and artistic director, Mendelssohns became the prototype of the modern conductor. With structured rehearsals, the conductor became the artistic authority who (newly) equipped with baton tried to implement the composer’s will. It attracted much attention that Mendelssohn, equipped with a phenomenal memory, conducted many of the works by heart. Mendelssohn was perhaps the most respected musician in Europe at the time, and in the 12 years (with interruptions) until his death, he led his Gewandhaus Orchestra to the very highest level of excellence with European appeal. Mendelssohn encouraged young musicians such as Schumann and Berlioz, whom he had met in Rome and with whom he maintained a warm friendship. At a guest concert of the Frenchman in Leipzig, the two exchanged batons.
Mendelssohn realized that the previous musical system produced too much mediocrity. Orchestral musicians had to perform in public houses in the evenings to supplement their salaries, and the training of young musicians was left to chance. Thus, Mendelssohn became decisively involved in improving the pay of orchestra musicians and, in an unprecedented show of strength, founded a Leipzig conservatory with four comrades-in-arms. Among the first teachers were Robert Schumann and his concertmaster and confidant Ferdinand David.
In 1836 Mendelssohn had met his future wife in Frankfurt. The wedding was celebrated in Cécile Jeanrenaud’s hometown of Frankfurt, after which she moved in with Felix in Leipzig, where the two had five children. Cécile sang and played the piano, but her passion was painting. She was a reserved person and thus did not have the role of the classical “muse” of the romantic composer, but gave Felix the support he needed to work through his immense workload. Of Mendelssohn’s three residences in Leipzig, the last still survives; the house at Goldschmidtstrasse 12 (then Königsstrasse) now houses the Mendelssohn Museum.
Mendelssohn remained immensely productive as a composer despite his multiple burdens as husband, father, artistic director, conductor, performing artist, conservatory director, traveling artist. His Leipzig years include the composition of his Elijah oratorio (premiered in Birmingham), his second piano concerto, and the famous violin concerto. Mendelssohn thus entered the hamster wheel of the art world, for which he paid tribute in his later years. The forties showed more and more an exhausted man with burn-out syndrome, which became the trigger for his early death after the death of his sister Fanny.
In May 1847, while on a concert tour, the catastrophic news of his sister Fanny’s death reached him. Mendelssohn was stunned, interrupted all his activities, and escaped on a solitary vacation trip to Switzerland. When he returned, he suffered his first stroke in Leipzig in early October. After further strokes, he lost consciousness and died at his home on November 4, 1847, at the age of 38. After a funeral service in Leipzig, his body was transferred to Berlin on a special train and buried in the Trinity Cemetery in the Mendelssohn family grave next to his beloved sister.
TO THE COMPLETE MENDELSSOHN BIOGRAPHY
Johann Sebastian Bach:
Bach’s appointment as Thomaskantor was rather bumpy. After the death of the previous cantor, the position was offered first to Telemann (as in Weimar) and then to another musician, both of whom declined. Thus Bach was only third choice, or as one councilman put it: “Since one cannot get the best-one must take the middle-one”. So Bach could leave Köthen.
During this time he was responsible for services and special church festivities of four churches. St. Nicholas Church and St. Thomas Church are still standing today, while two others fell victim to the Second World War. Bach’s main duties included the weekly performance of cantatas on Sundays and feast days. Bach put a lot of effort into this right at the beginning and wrote cantatas on a weekly basis. It is said that he composed five years of cantatas, of which three years (i.e. about 200 pieces) have survived. Already in 1724 he composed his most comprehensive work to date, the St. John Passion, and three years later the St. Matthew Passion. In 1730 a conflict arose with the council, since in Bach’s opinion the performance conditions had deteriorated. He now presented the council with his ideas of a “well-stocked church music,” thus handing down to posterity an important documentation of historical performance practice from the master’s hand.
Furthermore, he also had secular duties as music director. In Leipzig, a “Collegium musicum” had been formed (an orchestra of professional musicians and enthusiasts), which gave concerts in the hall and in the garden of a coffee house. For these concerts he wrote various works for orchestra, such as the harpsichord concertos.
The Leipzig period was overshadowed by private tragedies. Between 1726 and 1733, seven of Bach’s children died, in addition to the death of his last sibling, his sister Maria.
The late years of Bach still brought some great late works. These include, for example, “The Art of the Fugue”, the “Goldberg Variations” or the “Musical victims” (see “Bach in Berlin”). Soon thereafter, Bach’s health deteriorated. A severe eye disorder and disturbances in the arm of his writing hand hindered him so much that his creative work came to a virtual standstill. Bach subsequently underwent the famous eye operation performed by the passing controversial ophthalmologist Sir John Taylor in 1750. As with his professional colleague Handel, the result was a fiasco: although his eyesight improved briefly, he suffered a stroke a short time later and Johann Sebastian Bach died on July 28, 1750.
TO THE COMPLETE BACH BIOGRAPHY
Richard Wagner:
Richard Wagner was born in Leipzig as the ninth child, the house where he was born no longer stands. His father died a few months later and his mother married the poet and actor Ludwig Geyer a little later. It was long puzzled whether Ludwig, to whom Richard was very attached, was his biological father, which would have been very piquant because of his Jewish roots. Today it is assumed that this is not the case. After 2 years the family moved to Dresden.
At the age of 16, Wagner heard Fidelio with the Schröder-Devrient in Leipzig, which, according to him, was the deciding factor to become a professional musician. Two years later he began his musical studies at the University of Leipzig, composed his first works and became interested in politics. In 1833 he left Leipzig to gain professional experience.
LINK TO THE COMPLETE WAGNER BIOGRAPHY
Robert and Clara Schumann
Studies and piano training in Leipzig
Schumann, who grew up in nearby Zwickau, moved to Leipzig at the age of 18 to take up the unloved study of law. His mother wanted him to take up the studies, but Robert was mainly concerned with literature and music during this time. He stayed at the university for only one semester and then transferred to Heidelberg University for three semesters.
In 1831, the twenty-year-old returned to Leipzig to begin training as a piano virtuoso with Friedrich Wieck. Wieck had assured his mother that Robert had the talent if he would only practice diligently. However, the dexterity was not enough and Robert overused first his middle finger, then his whole right hand (possibly with a mechanical exercise device), so that he had to bury the dream of a piano virtuoso career.
In 1834, with Wieck, he founded an influential journal for music, which he directed for 10 years and for which he wrote numerous articles. Schumann had an extraordinary gift for language. He published many essays under pseudonyms, including Eusebius (the introverted Schumann) and Florestan (the passionate Schumann).
First psychoses and engagement
In 1833 he experienced his first psychoses. A doctor advised him to marry in order to overcome the crisis with a regulated life. Schumann became engaged to Ernestine von Fricken and memorialized her in his piano work Carneval (Estrella). However, the engagement was broken off again.
This mental illness probably stemmed from a bipolar disorder; occasionally a syphilis disease is mentioned as the cause. Against it speaks that Schumann’s father, one of his siblings and two of his children also had mental problems, which would speak for a genetic cause.
Engagement and marriage to Clara
Schumann had lived in Wieck’s house during his student years and met 9-year-old Clara. They became friends and the friendship turned to love when Clara was 15. At 18, the two became secretly engaged. Since their father was against the marriage, the two fought in court to get permission to marry and the wedding took place in 1840 at the Schönefelder Memorial Church. That year, the two moved into the apartment on Leipzig’s Inselstrasse, where they had an artist’s marriage and received artists such as Liszt and Mendelssohn. While Schumann wanted Clara to focus on her marriage and end her career as a pianist, he supported her in her work as a composer. This year became one of Schumann’s most productive years, called his Liederjahr because of the abundance of Lieder.
In 1841 Schumann composed his first symphony, the Spring Symphony, which Felix Mendelssohn premiered at the old Gewandhaus. It was a great success and Wieck recognized the genius of his son-in-law and sent out conciliatory gestures. Robert, however, remained reserved toward his father-in-law.
In 1844 Schumann hoped to become Mendelssohn’s successor at the Gewandhaus. But their hopes were dashed and the Schumanns moved to Düsseldorf, where Robert had been offered the position of municipal music director.
Felix Mendelssohn:
Mendelssohn’s first appearance as newly appointed Gewandhauskapellmeister in 1835 was triumphant. The 25-year-old Robert Schumann was an enthusiastic witness to his inaugural concert, and the two maintained a friendship from then on. The Gewandhaus would also become the premiere venue for two of Schumann’s symphonies. As a musician and artistic director, Mendelssohns became the prototype of the modern conductor. With structured rehearsals, the conductor became the artistic authority who (newly) equipped with baton tried to implement the composer’s will. It attracted much attention that Mendelssohn, equipped with a phenomenal memory, conducted many of the works by heart. Mendelssohn was perhaps the most respected musician in Europe at the time, and in the 12 years (with interruptions) until his death, he led his Gewandhaus Orchestra to the very highest level of excellence with European appeal. Mendelssohn encouraged young musicians such as Schumann and Berlioz, whom he had met in Rome and with whom he maintained a warm friendship. At a guest concert of the Frenchman in Leipzig, the two exchanged batons.
Mendelssohn realized that the previous musical system produced too much mediocrity. Orchestral musicians had to perform in public houses in the evenings to supplement their salaries, and the training of young musicians was left to chance. Thus, Mendelssohn became decisively involved in improving the pay of orchestra musicians and, in an unprecedented show of strength, founded a Leipzig conservatory with four comrades-in-arms. Among the first teachers were Robert Schumann and his concertmaster and confidant Ferdinand David.
In 1836 Mendelssohn had met his future wife in Frankfurt. The wedding was celebrated in Cécile Jeanrenaud’s hometown of Frankfurt, after which she moved in with Felix in Leipzig, where the two had five children. Cécile sang and played the piano, but her passion was painting. She was a reserved person and thus did not have the role of the classical “muse” of the romantic composer, but gave Felix the support he needed to work through his immense workload. Of Mendelssohn’s three residences in Leipzig, the last still survives; the house at Goldschmidtstrasse 12 (then Königsstrasse) now houses the Mendelssohn Museum.
Mendelssohn remained immensely productive as a composer despite his multiple burdens as husband, father, artistic director, conductor, performing artist, conservatory director, traveling artist. His Leipzig years include the composition of his Elijah oratorio (premiered in Birmingham), his second piano concerto, and the famous violin concerto. Mendelssohn thus entered the hamster wheel of the art world, for which he paid tribute in his later years. The forties showed more and more an exhausted man with burn-out syndrome, which became the trigger for his early death after the death of his sister Fanny.
In May 1847, while on a concert tour, the catastrophic news of his sister Fanny’s death reached him. Mendelssohn was stunned, interrupted all his activities, and escaped on a solitary vacation trip to Switzerland. When he returned, he suffered his first stroke in Leipzig in early October. After further strokes, he lost consciousness and died at his home on November 4, 1847, at the age of 38. After a funeral service in Leipzig, his body was transferred to Berlin on a special train and buried in the Trinity Cemetery in the Mendelssohn family grave next to his beloved sister.
TO THE COMPLETE MENDELSSOHN BIOGRAPHY
Johann Sebastian Bach:
Bach’s appointment as Thomaskantor was rather bumpy. After the death of the previous cantor, the position was offered first to Telemann (as in Weimar) and then to another musician, both of whom declined. Thus Bach was only third choice, or as one councilman put it: “Since one cannot get the best-one must take the middle-one”. So Bach could leave Köthen.
During this time he was responsible for services and special church festivities of four churches. St. Nicholas Church and St. Thomas Church are still standing today, while two others fell victim to the Second World War. Bach’s main duties included the weekly performance of cantatas on Sundays and feast days. Bach put a lot of effort into this right at the beginning and wrote cantatas on a weekly basis. It is said that he composed five years of cantatas, of which three years (i.e. about 200 pieces) have survived. Already in 1724 he composed his most comprehensive work to date, the St. John Passion, and three years later the St. Matthew Passion. In 1730 a conflict arose with the council, since in Bach’s opinion the performance conditions had deteriorated. He now presented the council with his ideas of a “well-stocked church music,” thus handing down to posterity an important documentation of historical performance practice from the master’s hand.
Furthermore, he also had secular duties as music director. In Leipzig, a “Collegium musicum” had been formed (an orchestra of professional musicians and enthusiasts), which gave concerts in the hall and in the garden of a coffee house. For these concerts he wrote various works for orchestra, such as the harpsichord concertos.
The Leipzig period was overshadowed by private tragedies. Between 1726 and 1733, seven of Bach’s children died, in addition to the death of his last sibling, his sister Maria.
The late years of Bach still brought some great late works. These include, for example, “The Art of the Fugue”, the “Goldberg Variations” or the “Musical victims” (see “Bach in Berlin”). Soon thereafter, Bach’s health deteriorated. A severe eye disorder and disturbances in the arm of his writing hand hindered him so much that his creative work came to a virtual standstill. Bach subsequently underwent the famous eye operation performed by the passing controversial ophthalmologist Sir John Taylor in 1750. As with his professional colleague Handel, the result was a fiasco: although his eyesight improved briefly, he suffered a stroke a short time later and Johann Sebastian Bach died on July 28, 1750.
TO THE COMPLETE BACH BIOGRAPHY
Richard Wagner:
Richard Wagner was born in Leipzig as the ninth child, the house where he was born no longer stands. His father died a few months later and his mother married the poet and actor Ludwig Geyer a little later. It was long puzzled whether Ludwig, to whom Richard was very attached, was his biological father, which would have been very piquant because of his Jewish roots. Today it is assumed that this is not the case. After 2 years the family moved to Dresden.
At the age of 16, Wagner heard Fidelio with the Schröder-Devrient in Leipzig, which, according to him, was the deciding factor to become a professional musician. Two years later he began his musical studies at the University of Leipzig, composed his first works and became interested in politics. In 1833 he left Leipzig to gain professional experience.
LINK TO THE COMPLETE WAGNER BIOGRAPHY
Robert and Clara Schumann
Studies and piano training in Leipzig
Schumann, who grew up in nearby Zwickau, moved to Leipzig at the age of 18 to take up the unloved study of law. His mother wanted him to take up the studies, but Robert was mainly concerned with literature and music during this time. He stayed at the university for only one semester and then transferred to Heidelberg University for three semesters.
In 1831, the twenty-year-old returned to Leipzig to begin training as a piano virtuoso with Friedrich Wieck. Wieck had assured his mother that Robert had the talent if he would only practice diligently. However, the dexterity was not enough and Robert overused first his middle finger, then his whole right hand (possibly with a mechanical exercise device), so that he had to bury the dream of a piano virtuoso career.
In 1834, with Wieck, he founded an influential journal for music, which he directed for 10 years and for which he wrote numerous articles. Schumann had an extraordinary gift for language. He published many essays under pseudonyms, including Eusebius (the introverted Schumann) and Florestan (the passionate Schumann).
First psychoses and engagement
In 1833 he experienced his first psychoses. A doctor advised him to marry in order to overcome the crisis with a regulated life. Schumann became engaged to Ernestine von Fricken and memorialized her in his piano work Carneval (Estrella). However, the engagement was broken off again.
This mental illness probably stemmed from a bipolar disorder; occasionally a syphilis disease is mentioned as the cause. Against it speaks that Schumann’s father, one of his siblings and two of his children also had mental problems, which would speak for a genetic cause.
Engagement and marriage to Clara
Schumann had lived in Wieck’s house during his student years and met 9-year-old Clara. They became friends and the friendship turned to love when Clara was 15. At 18, the two became secretly engaged. Since their father was against the marriage, the two fought in court to get permission to marry and the wedding took place in 1840 at the Schönefelder Memorial Church. That year, the two moved into the apartment on Leipzig’s Inselstrasse, where they had an artist’s marriage and received artists such as Liszt and Mendelssohn. While Schumann wanted Clara to focus on her marriage and end her career as a pianist, he supported her in her work as a composer. This year became one of Schumann’s most productive years, called his Liederjahr because of the abundance of Lieder.
In 1841 Schumann composed his first symphony, the Spring Symphony, which Felix Mendelssohn premiered at the old Gewandhaus. It was a great success and Wieck recognized the genius of his son-in-law and sent out conciliatory gestures. Robert, however, remained reserved toward his father-in-law.
In 1844 Schumann hoped to become Mendelssohn’s successor at the Gewandhaus. But their hopes were dashed and the Schumanns moved to Düsseldorf, where Robert had been offered the position of municipal music director.
Felix Mendelssohn:
Mendelssohn’s first appearance as newly appointed Gewandhauskapellmeister in 1835 was triumphant. The 25-year-old Robert Schumann was an enthusiastic witness to his inaugural concert, and the two maintained a friendship from then on. The Gewandhaus would also become the premiere venue for two of Schumann’s symphonies. As a musician and artistic director, Mendelssohns became the prototype of the modern conductor. With structured rehearsals, the conductor became the artistic authority who (newly) equipped with baton tried to implement the composer’s will. It attracted much attention that Mendelssohn, equipped with a phenomenal memory, conducted many of the works by heart. Mendelssohn was perhaps the most respected musician in Europe at the time, and in the 12 years (with interruptions) until his death, he led his Gewandhaus Orchestra to the very highest level of excellence with European appeal. Mendelssohn encouraged young musicians such as Schumann and Berlioz, whom he had met in Rome and with whom he maintained a warm friendship. At a guest concert of the Frenchman in Leipzig, the two exchanged batons.
Mendelssohn realized that the previous musical system produced too much mediocrity. Orchestral musicians had to perform in public houses in the evenings to supplement their salaries, and the training of young musicians was left to chance. Thus, Mendelssohn became decisively involved in improving the pay of orchestra musicians and, in an unprecedented show of strength, founded a Leipzig conservatory with four comrades-in-arms. Among the first teachers were Robert Schumann and his concertmaster and confidant Ferdinand David.
In 1836 Mendelssohn had met his future wife in Frankfurt. The wedding was celebrated in Cécile Jeanrenaud’s hometown of Frankfurt, after which she moved in with Felix in Leipzig, where the two had five children. Cécile sang and played the piano, but her passion was painting. She was a reserved person and thus did not have the role of the classical “muse” of the romantic composer, but gave Felix the support he needed to work through his immense workload. Of Mendelssohn’s three residences in Leipzig, the last still survives; the house at Goldschmidtstrasse 12 (then Königsstrasse) now houses the Mendelssohn Museum.
Mendelssohn remained immensely productive as a composer despite his multiple burdens as husband, father, artistic director, conductor, performing artist, conservatory director, traveling artist. His Leipzig years include the composition of his Elijah oratorio (premiered in Birmingham), his second piano concerto, and the famous violin concerto. Mendelssohn thus entered the hamster wheel of the art world, for which he paid tribute in his later years. The forties showed more and more an exhausted man with burn-out syndrome, which became the trigger for his early death after the death of his sister Fanny.
In May 1847, while on a concert tour, the catastrophic news of his sister Fanny’s death reached him. Mendelssohn was stunned, interrupted all his activities, and escaped on a solitary vacation trip to Switzerland. When he returned, he suffered his first stroke in Leipzig in early October. After further strokes, he lost consciousness and died at his home on November 4, 1847, at the age of 38. After a funeral service in Leipzig, his body was transferred to Berlin on a special train and buried in the Trinity Cemetery in the Mendelssohn family grave next to his beloved sister.
TO THE COMPLETE MENDELSSOHN BIOGRAPHY
Johann Sebastian Bach:
Bach’s appointment as Thomaskantor was rather bumpy. After the death of the previous cantor, the position was offered first to Telemann (as in Weimar) and then to another musician, both of whom declined. Thus Bach was only third choice, or as one councilman put it: “Since one cannot get the best-one must take the middle-one”. So Bach could leave Köthen.
During this time he was responsible for services and special church festivities of four churches. St. Nicholas Church and St. Thomas Church are still standing today, while two others fell victim to the Second World War. Bach’s main duties included the weekly performance of cantatas on Sundays and feast days. Bach put a lot of effort into this right at the beginning and wrote cantatas on a weekly basis. It is said that he composed five years of cantatas, of which three years (i.e. about 200 pieces) have survived. Already in 1724 he composed his most comprehensive work to date, the St. John Passion, and three years later the St. Matthew Passion. In 1730 a conflict arose with the council, since in Bach’s opinion the performance conditions had deteriorated. He now presented the council with his ideas of a “well-stocked church music,” thus handing down to posterity an important documentation of historical performance practice from the master’s hand.
Furthermore, he also had secular duties as music director. In Leipzig, a “Collegium musicum” had been formed (an orchestra of professional musicians and enthusiasts), which gave concerts in the hall and in the garden of a coffee house. For these concerts he wrote various works for orchestra, such as the harpsichord concertos.
The Leipzig period was overshadowed by private tragedies. Between 1726 and 1733, seven of Bach’s children died, in addition to the death of his last sibling, his sister Maria.
The late years of Bach still brought some great late works. These include, for example, “The Art of the Fugue”, the “Goldberg Variations” or the “Musical victims” (see “Bach in Berlin”). Soon thereafter, Bach’s health deteriorated. A severe eye disorder and disturbances in the arm of his writing hand hindered him so much that his creative work came to a virtual standstill. Bach subsequently underwent the famous eye operation performed by the passing controversial ophthalmologist Sir John Taylor in 1750. As with his professional colleague Handel, the result was a fiasco: although his eyesight improved briefly, he suffered a stroke a short time later and Johann Sebastian Bach died on July 28, 1750.
TO THE COMPLETE BACH BIOGRAPHY
Richard Wagner:
Richard Wagner was born in Leipzig as the ninth child, the house where he was born no longer stands. His father died a few months later and his mother married the poet and actor Ludwig Geyer a little later. It was long puzzled whether Ludwig, to whom Richard was very attached, was his biological father, which would have been very piquant because of his Jewish roots. Today it is assumed that this is not the case. After 2 years the family moved to Dresden.
At the age of 16, Wagner heard Fidelio with the Schröder-Devrient in Leipzig, which, according to him, was the deciding factor to become a professional musician. Two years later he began his musical studies at the University of Leipzig, composed his first works and became interested in politics. In 1833 he left Leipzig to gain professional experience.
LINK TO THE COMPLETE WAGNER BIOGRAPHY
Robert and Clara Schumann
Studies and piano training in Leipzig
Schumann, who grew up in nearby Zwickau, moved to Leipzig at the age of 18 to take up the unloved study of law. His mother wanted him to take up the studies, but Robert was mainly concerned with literature and music during this time. He stayed at the university for only one semester and then transferred to Heidelberg University for three semesters.
In 1831, the twenty-year-old returned to Leipzig to begin training as a piano virtuoso with Friedrich Wieck. Wieck had assured his mother that Robert had the talent if he would only practice diligently. However, the dexterity was not enough and Robert overused first his middle finger, then his whole right hand (possibly with a mechanical exercise device), so that he had to bury the dream of a piano virtuoso career.
In 1834, with Wieck, he founded an influential journal for music, which he directed for 10 years and for which he wrote numerous articles. Schumann had an extraordinary gift for language. He published many essays under pseudonyms, including Eusebius (the introverted Schumann) and Florestan (the passionate Schumann).
First psychoses and engagement
In 1833 he experienced his first psychoses. A doctor advised him to marry in order to overcome the crisis with a regulated life. Schumann became engaged to Ernestine von Fricken and memorialized her in his piano work Carneval (Estrella). However, the engagement was broken off again.
This mental illness probably stemmed from a bipolar disorder; occasionally a syphilis disease is mentioned as the cause. Against it speaks that Schumann’s father, one of his siblings and two of his children also had mental problems, which would speak for a genetic cause.
Engagement and marriage to Clara
Schumann had lived in Wieck’s house during his student years and met 9-year-old Clara. They became friends and the friendship turned to love when Clara was 15. At 18, the two became secretly engaged. Since their father was against the marriage, the two fought in court to get permission to marry and the wedding took place in 1840 at the Schönefelder Memorial Church. That year, the two moved into the apartment on Leipzig’s Inselstrasse, where they had an artist’s marriage and received artists such as Liszt and Mendelssohn. While Schumann wanted Clara to focus on her marriage and end her career as a pianist, he supported her in her work as a composer. This year became one of Schumann’s most productive years, called his Liederjahr because of the abundance of Lieder.
In 1841 Schumann composed his first symphony, the Spring Symphony, which Felix Mendelssohn premiered at the old Gewandhaus. It was a great success and Wieck recognized the genius of his son-in-law and sent out conciliatory gestures. Robert, however, remained reserved toward his father-in-law.
In 1844 Schumann hoped to become Mendelssohn’s successor at the Gewandhaus. But their hopes were dashed and the Schumanns moved to Düsseldorf, where Robert had been offered the position of municipal music director.
Felix Mendelssohn:
Mendelssohn’s first appearance as newly appointed Gewandhauskapellmeister in 1835 was triumphant. The 25-year-old Robert Schumann was an enthusiastic witness to his inaugural concert, and the two maintained a friendship from then on. The Gewandhaus would also become the premiere venue for two of Schumann’s symphonies. As a musician and artistic director, Mendelssohns became the prototype of the modern conductor. With structured rehearsals, the conductor became the artistic authority who (newly) equipped with baton tried to implement the composer’s will. It attracted much attention that Mendelssohn, equipped with a phenomenal memory, conducted many of the works by heart. Mendelssohn was perhaps the most respected musician in Europe at the time, and in the 12 years (with interruptions) until his death, he led his Gewandhaus Orchestra to the very highest level of excellence with European appeal. Mendelssohn encouraged young musicians such as Schumann and Berlioz, whom he had met in Rome and with whom he maintained a warm friendship. At a guest concert of the Frenchman in Leipzig, the two exchanged batons.
Mendelssohn realized that the previous musical system produced too much mediocrity. Orchestral musicians had to perform in public houses in the evenings to supplement their salaries, and the training of young musicians was left to chance. Thus, Mendelssohn became decisively involved in improving the pay of orchestra musicians and, in an unprecedented show of strength, founded a Leipzig conservatory with four comrades-in-arms. Among the first teachers were Robert Schumann and his concertmaster and confidant Ferdinand David.
In 1836 Mendelssohn had met his future wife in Frankfurt. The wedding was celebrated in Cécile Jeanrenaud’s hometown of Frankfurt, after which she moved in with Felix in Leipzig, where the two had five children. Cécile sang and played the piano, but her passion was painting. She was a reserved person and thus did not have the role of the classical “muse” of the romantic composer, but gave Felix the support he needed to work through his immense workload. Of Mendelssohn’s three residences in Leipzig, the last still survives; the house at Goldschmidtstrasse 12 (then Königsstrasse) now houses the Mendelssohn Museum.
Mendelssohn remained immensely productive as a composer despite his multiple burdens as husband, father, artistic director, conductor, performing artist, conservatory director, traveling artist. His Leipzig years include the composition of his Elijah oratorio (premiered in Birmingham), his second piano concerto, and the famous violin concerto. Mendelssohn thus entered the hamster wheel of the art world, for which he paid tribute in his later years. The forties showed more and more an exhausted man with burn-out syndrome, which became the trigger for his early death after the death of his sister Fanny.
In May 1847, while on a concert tour, the catastrophic news of his sister Fanny’s death reached him. Mendelssohn was stunned, interrupted all his activities, and escaped on a solitary vacation trip to Switzerland. When he returned, he suffered his first stroke in Leipzig in early October. After further strokes, he lost consciousness and died at his home on November 4, 1847, at the age of 38. After a funeral service in Leipzig, his body was transferred to Berlin on a special train and buried in the Trinity Cemetery in the Mendelssohn family grave next to his beloved sister.
TO THE COMPLETE MENDELSSOHN BIOGRAPHY
Johann Sebastian Bach:
Bach’s appointment as Thomaskantor was rather bumpy. After the death of the previous cantor, the position was offered first to Telemann (as in Weimar) and then to another musician, both of whom declined. Thus Bach was only third choice, or as one councilman put it: “Since one cannot get the best-one must take the middle-one”. So Bach could leave Köthen.
During this time he was responsible for services and special church festivities of four churches. St. Nicholas Church and St. Thomas Church are still standing today, while two others fell victim to the Second World War. Bach’s main duties included the weekly performance of cantatas on Sundays and feast days. Bach put a lot of effort into this right at the beginning and wrote cantatas on a weekly basis. It is said that he composed five years of cantatas, of which three years (i.e. about 200 pieces) have survived. Already in 1724 he composed his most comprehensive work to date, the St. John Passion, and three years later the St. Matthew Passion. In 1730 a conflict arose with the council, since in Bach’s opinion the performance conditions had deteriorated. He now presented the council with his ideas of a “well-stocked church music,” thus handing down to posterity an important documentation of historical performance practice from the master’s hand.
Furthermore, he also had secular duties as music director. In Leipzig, a “Collegium musicum” had been formed (an orchestra of professional musicians and enthusiasts), which gave concerts in the hall and in the garden of a coffee house. For these concerts he wrote various works for orchestra, such as the harpsichord concertos.
The Leipzig period was overshadowed by private tragedies. Between 1726 and 1733, seven of Bach’s children died, in addition to the death of his last sibling, his sister Maria.
The late years of Bach still brought some great late works. These include, for example, “The Art of the Fugue”, the “Goldberg Variations” or the “Musical victims” (see “Bach in Berlin”). Soon thereafter, Bach’s health deteriorated. A severe eye disorder and disturbances in the arm of his writing hand hindered him so much that his creative work came to a virtual standstill. Bach subsequently underwent the famous eye operation performed by the passing controversial ophthalmologist Sir John Taylor in 1750. As with his professional colleague Handel, the result was a fiasco: although his eyesight improved briefly, he suffered a stroke a short time later and Johann Sebastian Bach died on July 28, 1750.
TO THE COMPLETE BACH BIOGRAPHY
Richard Wagner:
Richard Wagner was born in Leipzig as the ninth child, the house where he was born no longer stands. His father died a few months later and his mother married the poet and actor Ludwig Geyer a little later. It was long puzzled whether Ludwig, to whom Richard was very attached, was his biological father, which would have been very piquant because of his Jewish roots. Today it is assumed that this is not the case. After 2 years the family moved to Dresden.
At the age of 16, Wagner heard Fidelio with the Schröder-Devrient in Leipzig, which, according to him, was the deciding factor to become a professional musician. Two years later he began his musical studies at the University of Leipzig, composed his first works and became interested in politics. In 1833 he left Leipzig to gain professional experience.
LINK TO THE COMPLETE WAGNER BIOGRAPHY
Robert and Clara Schumann
Studies and piano training in Leipzig
Schumann, who grew up in nearby Zwickau, moved to Leipzig at the age of 18 to take up the unloved study of law. His mother wanted him to take up the studies, but Robert was mainly concerned with literature and music during this time. He stayed at the university for only one semester and then transferred to Heidelberg University for three semesters.
In 1831, the twenty-year-old returned to Leipzig to begin training as a piano virtuoso with Friedrich Wieck. Wieck had assured his mother that Robert had the talent if he would only practice diligently. However, the dexterity was not enough and Robert overused first his middle finger, then his whole right hand (possibly with a mechanical exercise device), so that he had to bury the dream of a piano virtuoso career.
In 1834, with Wieck, he founded an influential journal for music, which he directed for 10 years and for which he wrote numerous articles. Schumann had an extraordinary gift for language. He published many essays under pseudonyms, including Eusebius (the introverted Schumann) and Florestan (the passionate Schumann).
First psychoses and engagement
In 1833 he experienced his first psychoses. A doctor advised him to marry in order to overcome the crisis with a regulated life. Schumann became engaged to Ernestine von Fricken and memorialized her in his piano work Carneval (Estrella). However, the engagement was broken off again.
This mental illness probably stemmed from a bipolar disorder; occasionally a syphilis disease is mentioned as the cause. Against it speaks that Schumann’s father, one of his siblings and two of his children also had mental problems, which would speak for a genetic cause.
Engagement and marriage to Clara
Schumann had lived in Wieck’s house during his student years and met 9-year-old Clara. They became friends and the friendship turned to love when Clara was 15. At 18, the two became secretly engaged. Since their father was against the marriage, the two fought in court to get permission to marry and the wedding took place in 1840 at the Schönefelder Memorial Church. That year, the two moved into the apartment on Leipzig’s Inselstrasse, where they had an artist’s marriage and received artists such as Liszt and Mendelssohn. While Schumann wanted Clara to focus on her marriage and end her career as a pianist, he supported her in her work as a composer. This year became one of Schumann’s most productive years, called his Liederjahr because of the abundance of Lieder.
In 1841 Schumann composed his first symphony, the Spring Symphony, which Felix Mendelssohn premiered at the old Gewandhaus. It was a great success and Wieck recognized the genius of his son-in-law and sent out conciliatory gestures. Robert, however, remained reserved toward his father-in-law.
In 1844 Schumann hoped to become Mendelssohn’s successor at the Gewandhaus. But their hopes were dashed and the Schumanns moved to Düsseldorf, where Robert had been offered the position of municipal music director.
Felix Mendelssohn:
Mendelssohn’s first appearance as newly appointed Gewandhauskapellmeister in 1835 was triumphant. The 25-year-old Robert Schumann was an enthusiastic witness to his inaugural concert, and the two maintained a friendship from then on. The Gewandhaus would also become the premiere venue for two of Schumann’s symphonies. As a musician and artistic director, Mendelssohns became the prototype of the modern conductor. With structured rehearsals, the conductor became the artistic authority who (newly) equipped with baton tried to implement the composer’s will. It attracted much attention that Mendelssohn, equipped with a phenomenal memory, conducted many of the works by heart. Mendelssohn was perhaps the most respected musician in Europe at the time, and in the 12 years (with interruptions) until his death, he led his Gewandhaus Orchestra to the very highest level of excellence with European appeal. Mendelssohn encouraged young musicians such as Schumann and Berlioz, whom he had met in Rome and with whom he maintained a warm friendship. At a guest concert of the Frenchman in Leipzig, the two exchanged batons.
Mendelssohn realized that the previous musical system produced too much mediocrity. Orchestral musicians had to perform in public houses in the evenings to supplement their salaries, and the training of young musicians was left to chance. Thus, Mendelssohn became decisively involved in improving the pay of orchestra musicians and, in an unprecedented show of strength, founded a Leipzig conservatory with four comrades-in-arms. Among the first teachers were Robert Schumann and his concertmaster and confidant Ferdinand David.
In 1836 Mendelssohn had met his future wife in Frankfurt. The wedding was celebrated in Cécile Jeanrenaud’s hometown of Frankfurt, after which she moved in with Felix in Leipzig, where the two had five children. Cécile sang and played the piano, but her passion was painting. She was a reserved person and thus did not have the role of the classical “muse” of the romantic composer, but gave Felix the support he needed to work through his immense workload. Of Mendelssohn’s three residences in Leipzig, the last still survives; the house at Goldschmidtstrasse 12 (then Königsstrasse) now houses the Mendelssohn Museum.
Mendelssohn remained immensely productive as a composer despite his multiple burdens as husband, father, artistic director, conductor, performing artist, conservatory director, traveling artist. His Leipzig years include the composition of his Elijah oratorio (premiered in Birmingham), his second piano concerto, and the famous violin concerto. Mendelssohn thus entered the hamster wheel of the art world, for which he paid tribute in his later years. The forties showed more and more an exhausted man with burn-out syndrome, which became the trigger for his early death after the death of his sister Fanny.
In May 1847, while on a concert tour, the catastrophic news of his sister Fanny’s death reached him. Mendelssohn was stunned, interrupted all his activities, and escaped on a solitary vacation trip to Switzerland. When he returned, he suffered his first stroke in Leipzig in early October. After further strokes, he lost consciousness and died at his home on November 4, 1847, at the age of 38. After a funeral service in Leipzig, his body was transferred to Berlin on a special train and buried in the Trinity Cemetery in the Mendelssohn family grave next to his beloved sister.
TO THE COMPLETE MENDELSSOHN BIOGRAPHY
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