Deryk Barker <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>I therefore propose Felix Mendelssohn as the compositional prodigy of all
>time.

A view shared by Charles Rosen in his "Romantic Generation." His chapter on
Mendelssohn lays out in extensive detail the extraordinary musical maturity
achieved by the 16-year old Mendelssohn, such as (among other things) being
far ahead of his older colleagues in understanding Bach and late Beethoven.

I am also not aware of any evidence that Mendelssohn was pushed by his
parents as a musical prodigy (as opposed to Mozart, whose father appears to
have been somewhat reprehensible in this respect, and a pervasive negative
psychological influence throughout his son's life).

Ulvi
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