David Wolf quotes Robert Jourdain:

>I'd like to quote from a fascinating book called Music, the Brain,
>and Ecstacy, by Robert Jourdain.  In a section beginning on P 158, he
>discusses the various musical prodigies, beginning with Mozart.  ...
>Then he asks why so few other prodigies fulfilled their early promise. ...
>he then talks about history's greatest musical disappointment based on his
>early promise: Mendelssohn.

Which leads me to ask exactly how much Mendelssohn Jourdain has heard.
Granted, Mendelssohn wrote some dreck, but so did Mozart and probably
every other composer who ever wrote, with the possible exceptions of
Ravel and Stravinsky (and I'm not sure about Stravinsky).  On the other
hand, what's so bad about Elijah, the Quintet in Bb, the series of string
quartets, piano trios, cello sonatas, the Preludes and Fugues, the Lieder
ohne Woerte, the fragments from Christus, Symphony No. 4, the complete
music to MSND (only the overture was written early), the violin concerto,
The Hebrides, the Overture for Band, etc.  etc.? This is hardly hackwork.
Try coming up with a theme like the opening to the Italian Symphony.  Try
writing a symphony with so few wasted notes.

In the 19th century, people tended to pat Mozart on the head as a petite
maitre - "tuneful little ditties," in Shaw's memorable phrase.  It took a
genius like Shaw to point out that people had forgotten how the classical
style expressed emotion.  The same thing happened to Mendelssohn.  If
there were any longer classical music criticism aimed at the general
reader, I'd be content to wait for another Shaw (who, by the way, detested
Mendelssohn's mature work).  Shaw also hated Brahms and Dvorak - I have a
theory about why, which I won't bore you with - so not another Shaw, but
someone penetrating in the music which passed him by.

Steve Schwartz