Archive of the Month – February 2022
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (Hamburg, 3 February 1809 – Leipzig, 4 November 1847)
A letter from the composer Mendelssohn to one of his English contemporaries, the composer and educator, George Alexander Macfarren (1813-1887, Member A384). Mendelssohn, noted for his Bach scholarship, his friendships with the British Royal Family, his compositions as well as performance as a keyboardist and conductor, is here seen to be promoting “new music”. The letter reveals Mendelssohn’s involvement with performing contemporary British orchestral music within his own concert planning in Leipzig at a subscription series of concerts over the winter months, conducted by him at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig. The period August-September 1846 was Mendelssohn’s ninth trip to England. The trip included rehearsals, in London, for his oratorio Elijah which was first performed on 26 August at the Birmingham Musical Festival.
Transcription of the letter:
My dear Sir
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy
I have Communicated the Contents of your letter to the Directors of the Abonnement-Concerts and they told me to write to you, that they should be very happy to receive your Symphony and Overture (Score and parts if possible) and that they intend to perform both of them if they possibly can. Now as I hear Mr. Buxton (from Ewer & Co.) is shortly coming to Leipsic I wish you would give him the Score of these two works to take them over to me, & I therefore write in great haste. If he could also take the Parts (that is if you have them – for if not, they shall be copied here) it would be so much better; but I doubt that he will be able to take them. At any rate he will be able to tell you which way you might send the parts with the least expense for our Directors, & therefore pray speak to him about the subject – & excuse these hasty lines. And let me have an answer and the scores through Mr. Buxton, and with many good wishes to yourself & Mrs. Macfarren
believe me very truly yours in furious haste
Leipsic 25 Sept 1846
G.A. Macfarren Esqr.
8 Duke Street
Portland Place
“Macfarren must be accounted one of the most prolific composers of the 19th century. He was the only English composer of his generation to persevere in writing symphonies, undaunted by their almost inevitable failure to command public attention” (Nicholas Temperley in Grove Online). The earliest date of a performance of a work by Macfarren at the Philharmonic Society concerts (his overture Don Quixote) was 3 May 1852 with the only performance of a symphony (no.9 in E minor) on 2 July 1879. Only his seventh symphony (of nine in total) was published in his lifetime and that appeared in a piano duet arrangement in 1842; however, it was common for orchestral works not to appear in print considering the expense of engraving and printing so many parts and copies (for potentially few performances, let alone sales opportunities). It seems probable that the symphony offered to Mendelssohn in a previous correspondence was Macfarren’s No.8 (in D major) which was composed in 1845 and the overture may have been Don Carlos, composed in 1842, these being the two works written most closely prior to the year 1846.
Ewer and Company, music sellers and publishers founded in 1823, which later merged with the firm of Novello & Company in 1867, was owned by Edward Buxton from about 1839 at the same time that the firm acquired the stock of Gustavus Andre, another London importer of “foreign” music with strong links to German musicians. Buxton retired around the year 1859 but during his tenure the firm had strong and harmonious relations with Mendelssohn; Buxton was also a wool merchant.
In 1844 Macfarren married the German lady Clarina Thalia Andrae (1828-1916), a singer and linguist, who was later known for her many translations of German poetry, vocal works and operas under her pen name of “Natalia Macfarren”.
Duke Street, where the Macfarrens were living, is just south of Manchester Square, crossing Wigmore Street, and just a few minutes walk from Tenterden Street where the Royal Academy of Music (RAM) was at that time. Macfarren was a student at the RAM, soon afterwards a teacher, and later on the Principal.
