Felix Mendelssohn may be the only great composer who has ever come from an upper-class family, a family of converted Jews who were in banking. Their home was a meeting place for artists and intellectuals over generations. Felix and his sister Fanny were brought up with music and every other advantage that came with a life of privilege. (Felix also became a fine amateur painter.)

By the time he was fifteen Felix was conducting the family orchestra in his own music. He went on to a stellar career, not only as an enormously successful composer but also as a pianist, organist, conductor, educator — he founded the Leipzig Conservatory of Music — and even musicologist. His performance of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion was a landmark in the revival of “early music.”

This action was typical, for from the start Mendelssohn showed a great respect for, even deference toward, the classics. His music never goes as far as, say, Schumann or Chopin in acceding to Romantic tendencies, but always keeps a firm foundation of Classical technique.

One of Mendelssohn’s most significant fields of activity was the concert overture, an early genre of Romantic program music, discussed above. In his lifetime he was admired even more for his oratorios St. Paul and Elijah, and for popular sets of piano miniatures he called Songs without Words. His Violin Concerto and “Italian” Symphony are special favorites.