Late January and early Feburary is an intriguing time for birthdays… There’s Mozart (Jan 27 1756 - Dec 5 1791), Schubert (Jan 31 1797 - Nov 19 1828) and
Felix Mendelssohn (Feb 3 1809 - Nov 4 1847)
I had the fortune of playing the Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture when I was even too young to understand the beauty before internalizing it (16). But the spirit lives on. Happy birthday to one of my favorite composers!
Mendelssohn compose dream and live in dreams — including concerto competition panel’s worst nightmare. His violin concerto is virally (annoyingly) famous. See Daniel Barenboim and Perlman playing a rather famous version of it: