JAVS Fall 2011

F ELIX M ENDELSSOHN : V IOLIST

by Linda Shaver-Gleason

often, not merely as a last resort. This article begins with an overview of Mendelssohn’s activities as a vio list then examines his only composition for his favorite stringed instrument, his Sonata for Viola and Piano in C Minor. Figure 1. Robert Schumann, “Zweiter Quartett-Morgen,” Neue Zeitschrift für Musik 8, no. 49 (June 19, 1838): 194.

In her 1923 article, “The history of the Viola in Quartet Playing,” Rebecca Clarke notes how many composers played the viola parts of their own quar tets, dryly remarking, “For, often anxious to take part in concerted music, yet not wanting to spend much time acquiring the technique of a too exacting instru ment, many [composers] very naturally took up the viola.” 1 Clarke’s sarcasm betrays a disconcerting notion: though violists might take pride in the fact that so many composers—including Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, and Dvořák—played the viola in chamber music and orchestra, others would argue that many simply chose the stringed instrument that seemed the least demanding. Virtuoso violist-com posers, like Paul hindemith and Clarke herself, were few and far between, emerging mostly in the twenti eth century as violists became dissatisfied with the lack of adequate solo repertoire and took it upon themselves to remedy the situation. So it may come as a surprise that Felix Mendelssohn (1809–47)—a more-than-competent violinist, by all accounts—actually preferred to play the viola. Mendelssohn’s adeptness on the viola is not well known since he primarily played in private, but biog rapher Eric Werner notes that, “All through his life he retained the mastery of the viola, sometimes even playing it in public.” 2 In an issue of Die Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (NZM) , Robert Schumann even refers to the viola as Mendelssohn’s main instrument after the piano and organ (fig. 1). 3 Even so, the com poser wrote just one work that features his favorite stringed instrument in a solo capacity, a sonata from his teen years that was never published in his lifetime. Although Mendelssohn does not reach the ranks of virtuoso violist-composers like Clarke or hindemith, violists can still be confident in knowing that a small body of evidence supports the idea that this esteemed nineteenth-century composer played the viola very

The most comprehensive examination of Mendelssohn’s viola playing is Franz Krautwurst’s essay “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy als Bratschist.” Published in 1982 in Gedenkschrift Hermann Beck , it has never been published in an English translation and remains fairly obscure to American violists. It is an extremely thorough piece of scholarship, tracing written records of Mendelssohn’s viola playing decade by decade. Krautwurst deduces Mendelssohn’s activity from various published and unpublished sources, including newspaper announcements, personal corre spondence, and daily journals of the composer and his circle of friends. From this pastiche, several interesting details emerge. Mendelssohn started violin lessons at age eight, learning from Carl Wilhelm henning, who would eventually become the concertmaster of the Royal Chapel in Berlin. 4 After a few years (it is impos sible to pinpoint the exact date, but Krautwurst esti mates sometime around 1820 or 1821), Mendelssohn switched teachers to Eduard Rietz, who was much closer in age to the composer and would become a close friend. 5 Rietz is the one who introduced Mendelssohn to playing the viola, and they often played together in various domestic string quartets. 6 Rietz also seems involved in introducing Mendelssohn to orchestral viola playing, since he played in Rietz’s

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