Felix Mendelssohn Felix Mendelssohn Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 1809 4 November 1847), born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early romantic period. Mendelssohn wrote symphonies, concertos, oratorios, piano music and chamber music. His best-known works include his Overture and incidental music for "A Midsummer Night's Dream", the "Italian Symphony", the "Scottish Symphony", the overture "The Hebrides", his mature Violin Concerto, and his String Octet. His "Songs Without Words" are his most famous solo piano compositions. After a long period of relative denigration due to changing musical tastes and antisemitism
Overture in D minor (Handel, arr. Elgar) first performance. Elgar's friend W. H. Reed wrote of Elgar's enthusiasm for Handel: '...he would speak of Handel with tears in his eyes... would rub his hands gleefully and look up to heaven at the thought of Handel's genius'. Elgar wrote to John E. West, music editor at Novello & Co., that he had known the overture since he was a little boy and always wanted it to be heard in a large form. Elgar's arrangement followed two orchestrations of works by another composer he admired: he transcribed J. S. Bach's "Fugue in C minor" in 1921 and the "Fantasia