Music Man

This year is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Felix Mendelssohn. Although he only lived 38 years his output was prodigious, spanning almost the whole range of composition. He wrote symphonies, concerti, chamber works, songs and choral works, and pieces for piano and organ. If you know nothing else of his, you almost certainly know his Wedding March which most couples still walk out of church to following the ceremony. He was an incomparable tunesmith and his Violin Concerto, Italian Symphony and Incidental Music to A Midsummer Night's Dream (which is where the Wedding March comes from) are perennial favourites. His sister Fanny was also a highly talented performer and composer, but because at the time music was not considered a suitable career for a woman, many of her compositions were originally published under Felix's name - and some of them still are.