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Mendelssohn Festive Year 2022 in Leipzig
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Mendelssohn Festive Year 2022 in Leipzig
(11 February 2022) The year 2022 marks the 175th anniversary of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy's death on 4 November 1847 in Leipzig. At the same time, the Mendelssohn House will celebrate its 25th anniversary on 31 October 2022. To honour these jubilees in a fitting manner, the festive year started on 3 February 2022 and will end with the Mendelssohn Festival from 31 October to 6 November 2022 as its highlight. With many concerts and activities under the motto “Felix makes you happy” Leipzig welcomes its classical music fans for the Mendelssohn Festive Year 2022.
Alongside Johann Sebastian Bach, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy is one of the most important composers in music history. Being responsible for the Bach renaissance he has shaped Leipzig like few others. As Gewandhauskapellmeister and pioneer of Germany's first conservatory, he established Leipzig's reputation as a world city of music. The year of celebration in honour of the musical prodigy began with a festive birthday concert in the Mendelssohn House. It is the composers only remaining residence and now museum dedicated to his life. Throughout the year, a chamber concert will be offered every Sunday at 11 o’clock in the historic salon of the Mendelssohn House. In addition, the Sunday matinees in the family tradition as well as numerous guided tours, talks and lectures are planned.
"We would like to create an overall picture from the anniversary of his birth to the anniversary of his death, for which different formats and offers can be found for everyone. Mendelssohn was a composer, pianist and conductor, but also a painter, man of letters, cultural politician and globetrotter. He was a brilliant, incredibly versatile and modern-thinking person. Leipzig is the place where all this can be felt," says Patrick Schmeing, director of the Mendelssohn House.
On 27 May 2022, the special exhibition on the history of the residential building at today's Goldschmidtstraße 12 will open in the Mendelssohn House. Under the title "Temple of the Muses, Tenement House, Museum”, visitors will learn about the extremely eventful history of the house and its inhabitants. On the following days, 28 and 29 May 2022, concerts will be held under the title "Felix in Spring" in the music salon as well as open-air in the garden of the Mendelssohn House.
The highlight of the festival year will be the Mendelssohn Festival from 31 October to 6 November 2022. As a cooperation between the Mendelssohn House and the Gewandhaus Concert Hall in Leipzig, the opening festival concert of the Gewandhaus Orchestra on 31 October 2022 is a tribute to the opening day of the museum exactly 25 years ago. At that time, Kurt Masur fulfilled his heart's desire by handing over the Mendelssohn House to the public and making it a musical experience for everyone. In the days that follow, numerous events and concerts will take place. For example, Dorothea Röschmann and Elena Bashkirova will interpret songs by Felix and his sister Fanny as well as excerpts from their cycle "The Year" in the concert for Mendelssohn's hour of death on the evening of 4 November. The Gewandhaus Orchestra also honours the composer with two concerts. Conducted by Andrés Orozco-Estrada, music lovers can look forward to a musical experience in a class of its own on 3 and 4 November 2022. On 6 November 2022, the festivities will end with a final concert in the Mendelssohn Hall of the Gewandhaus Concert Hall in Leipzig.
The Mendelssohn House as well as the Gewandhaus Concert Hall are part of the Leipzig Music Trail (Leipziger Notenspur). Therefore, another musical highlight this year is the 10th anniversary of this musical walking tour. It connects the most important original places of work of famous composers like Bach, Mendelssohn, Schumann, and Wagner that lived in Leipzig. As the individual stations are not far removed from one another, they can be comfortably discovered on foot. At each station, audio examples and information in German and English provide exciting insights. Even a unique 360° panorama tour can be experienced. On 15 May 2022, a festive event will be celebrated with guided tours along the Leipzig Music Trail and various activities at individual stations. A musical finale awaits all visitors at the Grassi Museums with highlights such as the university big band, the gamelan orchestra, the cinema organ and visual music. In the Jubilee Year the biggest and most important focus of the Leipzig Music Trail will be Jewish musical culture. The occasion is the 100th anniversary of the consecration of the Ez-Chaim-Synagogue, which was located on the grounds of Apel's Garden in Leipzig. Since Felix Mendelssohn also had Jewish roots, the focus fits particularly well into the Mendelssohn Festive Year 2022.
Background Mendelssohn:
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy is one of the most respected and successful musicians of his time, as a composer, conductor and virtuoso. Born in Hamburg in 1809, he made his first appearance as a pianist at the age of only nine. After numerous concert tours around the globe, he gave his inaugural concert at the Gewandhaus Concert Hall in Leipzig on 4 October 1835 at the age of 26. For a total of 12 years, the trade fair city was the centre of his life. As Gewandhauskapellmeister and co-founder of the first German conservatory, he left his mark on the musical landscape. His work in Leipzig laid the foundation for modern concert practice. Mendelssohn was known for his striving to improve musical standards, which is why he also insisted on rehearsing and performing all concerts with the orchestra himself. He also introduced the so-called cycle of historical concerts: this was intended to arouse the listeners' interest in music-historical contexts. On 1 July 1841 he was appointed Royal Saxon Kapellmeister, on 13 October he was appointed Royal Prussian Kapellmeister. Two years later, Mendelssohn received honorary citizenship of the city of Leipzig. In his musical career, he wrote more than 750 compositions and was also responsible for the renaissance of Bach’s work. In 1847 he conducted his last concert on 18 March in Leipzig. On 4 November that year he died in his apartment, where he had lived with his family and that is now part of the Mendelssohn House museum. He found his final resting place in the family grave at the cemetery Dreifaltigkeitskirchhof in Berlin, close to his beloved sister Fanny Hensel.
More Information:
- www.leipzig.travel/cityofmusic
- www.mendelssohn-stiftung.de
- www.gewandhausorchester.de
- https://notenspur-leipzig.de/en/
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