Mendelssohn: Songs without Words, Book 1 (6), Op. 19b (Lieder ohne Worte)

Howard Shelley is acclaimed as the living master of early Romantic piano music. So much of this music was ignored throughout the twentieth century that there is still a sense of discovery at each new recording. Shelley here presents the first instalment of a six-volume set of Mendelssohn’s complete solo piano music—perhaps the least well-known part of the composer’s repertoire.

Mendelssohn composed or began nearly two hundred works for piano. Nevertheless, he saw only about seventy through the press, released in seventeen opera from the Capriccio Op 5 (1825) to the sixth volume of the Lieder ohne Worte Op 67 (1845). Some twenty-five additional pieces appeared posthumously in eleven additional opera. The remainder, whether fully drafted or fragmentary, were left to his musical estate or have disappeared.

Volume 1 includes Opp 5, 6, and 7, the first three piano compositions Mendelssohn published between 1825 and 1827, as well as Op 19b, the first volume of his Lieder ohne Worte, released in 1832.

Ronald Brautigam here performs the first four books of Felix Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words (Lieder ohne Worte).

If claims could be made for a composer to have invented a genre single-handedly, Mendelssohn would be a strong candidate with his ‘Songs Without Words’ - short lyrical pieces for the piano using a song-like structure. They were immediately popular across Europe, and were imitated by several composers, including Robert Schumann.

One of today’s leading fortepiano players, Ronald Brautigam has released complete sets of piano music by Mozart and Haydn, and is currently recording a highly regarded series of the solo piano works by Beethoven.

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy is regarded as the inventor of the ‘Songs without Words’ genre. He wrote eight volumes, each containing six Songs without Words. Michael Korstick performs these genial atmospheric pieces, which are all too often only heard only as encores, with a dazzling interpretive guise.

Felix Mendelssohn was a virtuoso pianist, and it is worth remembering that he was born in 1809, with his friend Schumann being born a year later in 1810, as was Chopin, and Liszt following in 1811. These composers were among the greatest pianists of the 19th century, and they were born at a time when the piano was a relatively modern instrument, and composers such as Hummel, Moscheles (Mendelssohn’s friend), Kalkbrenner and Ries were accorded adulation similar to pop stars today. Beethoven commenced his career in the 1790s as a virtuoso pianist.

No surprise then that the young Mendelssohn composed extensively for his chosen instrument from the outset. From early concertos and sonatas he quickly established his ‘mature’ style in works such as the Rondo capriccioso, and the Andante cantabile e Presto agitato.

The masterpieces that followed include the remarkably imposing Variations serieuses and the famous Songs without Words. Mendelssohn’s style did not change throughout his short creative life – he very quickly composed in what we know as his mature style from his early teens, something even Mozart didn’t achieve. This 4CD contains the Songs without Words, Variations serieuse, Kinderstucke, Rondo capriccioso, Capriccio, and Trois Fantasies ou Caprices plus several shorter works.

All artworks in this series are watercolours by the composer