The Hidden Composer - Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy
Person responsible: Anna-Dorothea Ludewig
September 13th - 15th, 2009, UsedomFelix Mendelssohn Bartholdy has been one of the most
disputed composers in the canon of European art music.
The evaluation of his oeuvre has shifted radically during
the past 150 years, oscillating between complete dismissal and
near idolization. Even his adversaries acknowledge that he
was one of the most gifted and cultured artists of the
Romantic era. It is well known that one main reason for
the ambivalence towards Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy’s art
has been Richard Wagner’s condemning criticism, and his
propagandistic anti-Semitic statements remain ingrained
in the communal cultural consciousness to this very day.
Also for that reason a group of international researchers will
meet in Heringsdorf, previously to the Usedom Music Festival:
On the occasion of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy’s
200th birthday a new approach to the life and work
of the “hidden composer” and pathfinder of the Bach-
Renaissance should be tried.
