Deryk Barker [[log in to unmask]] pops up with a reply to me:

>Mats Norrman ([log in to unmask]) wrote:
>
>>A klotje of Beethoven & C/O yes, but I feel more Muzio Clementi in the
>>string symphonies.
>
>Matts, without wishing to be offensive, is "klotje" simply a typo, or
>a piece of Swedish vernacular we'd all love to become acquainted with?

Sorry to all non-dutch listers. "Klotje" means "little piece of". [-Je is
the dutch diminutive]. Sometimes I don't know what my fingers are doing.
We should keep to Lingua Franca after all, for everybodys pleasure.

>>But from the "Mittsommernachtstraumouverture" his style
>>is highly original, and some works even before that (particulary that
>>"Swiss" 9th String symphony).  But more influences were to come.  The old
>>guys,Palestrina, Orlando di Lassus, and later on, yes J.S.Bach!  He was
>>really a child genious!
>
>I defy anyone to come up with a greater work composed by a 16-year-old than
>the Octet.  (Just to help, Mozart's Koechel numbers for his 17th year range
>from 124 to 162, no masterpieces there I submit).  The year before MSND
>BTW, and surely one of the most sublime works in the chamber literature.

Actually, and IIRC, the Octet was composed around 1825, and the 9th
String Sinfonie after the Mendelssohnclans holiday in Schweiz, which
took place 1822 or 1823 {But could look this up seeing if I have mixed
some years up}.  The stringsinfonies before bear strong influence from
Beethoven [particulary nos.  2 & 7], Mozart [particulary nr.  8] and
Clementi [particulary the others].  Later on Mendelssohn also discovered,
and hear it; Vivaldi [nr.12], at least to my ears, but I am no expert.
But the ninth has a truly original Mendelssohnian style whole through.
I think we had seen more of this idiom in his youth if it hasn't been for
his curiosity to all the time discover new things, and listen [please read:
"play" or "read" as he had no CD player] to new music to see what it was
like.  But I must strongly agree with Herr Barker that the octett also is
an early work in Mendelssohns own idiom, and a very good work too!  Thanks
also to Herrn Barker for the interesting comparision with Mozart.
 [Mendelssohn is one of my favourite topics...

>Magical is the only word for the music and its teenage creator.  I
>therefore propose Felix Mendelssohn as the compositional prodigy of all
>time.

I raise my hand for that too!  Let me even use such an obscene word as:
Amen!

Mats Norrman
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