Why is Mendelssohn so unpopular?

[busondelssohn]

Hi all,
I'm back with my Mendelssohn tirade. I just really wonder why Mendelssohn's piano concertos are so underrated. I've only found six pianists who recorded the first one, and many less the second one.
I just think it's such a shame, I mean, you can't make an excuse for not having heard of Mendelssohn. He is relatively well known. I'd take Mendelssohn 2 over for example the Grieg concerto any day.
I just wanted to here your thoughts on why this might be, because I surely don't understand it.

[pianistavt]

Regarding the first concerto, it's enjoyable to listen to when played by a very good pianist - it needs an excellent technique to render the joie de vivre vibe.  However as soon as it's over, you forget it - nothing stays with you, unlike many other concerti (Mozart 20, 23, 24, Beethoven 4, 5, Brahms 1, 2, etc).  Mendelssohn said of the concerto "I wrote it in but a few days and almost carelessly".  It sounds it.  It lacks artistic/emotional depth.   The second is even more forgettable.

:

[busondelssohn]

That's true, yet I am in two minds about this. I think it can be remembered depending on the performer. There is a performance by Andras Schiff that I'm rather impartial to. It's fun to listen to, but as you said, nothing rememberable.
Yet, the video of Yuja Wang playing it, conducted by Kurt Mazur, is the polar opposite in my opinion. She may not have played as cleanly as Schiff, but what stuck with me was the sheer emotion just oozing from the piano and the orchestra. The urgency of the first movement, the sweet second movement, which reminds me of a boat on a lake, and the German hunting song-like character third movement could not have been more plainly put.

Regarding the second, I really like the recording by Thibaudet.

[kosulin]

I suspect the main cause is a lot of people are not happy in their marriage, or have bad memories of their past marriage(s). LOL.

[busondelssohn]

I suspect the main cause is a lot of people are not happy in their marriage, or have bad memories of their past marriage(s). LOL.

Seems rather out of context to me, but who am I to judge.
Kosulin, care to elaborate on what you meant?

[kosulin]

Seems rather out of context to me, but who am I to judge.
Kosulin, care to elaborate on what you meant?

His Wedding March is a popular wedding ceremony tune in some countries.

[busondelssohn]

Aha. I see.

[lelle]

I think Mendelssohn has two issues for the general public:
1) his music is generally not as immediately gripping and memorable as the music of some of the greats, even if a lot of it is very good, and at the very least competently written
2) his music is very difficult to play, let alone play well, exacerbating point 1). Mendelssohn was a technical monster of a pianist and it shows. I remember when I played the Trio no. 1 in D minor (which is awesome, by the way) my chamber music partners joked that my part was like a virtuoso piano concerto while they mostly played simple melodies lol.

Mendelssohn's best music is up there with the great composers, but he has written a lot I don't find particularly interesting to listen to.

[busondelssohn]

That's interesting to know. I'm realising now that aside from the two concerti I know and the "Song without words"that I played, I only know his Lieder im Freien zu singen

[pianistavt]

I haven't listened to all of Mendelssohn's solo piano oeuvre, but to date I think his greatest work is Variations Sérieuses, Op.54.  If you haven't listened to it - you're in for a big treat.   It's the one piece by Mendelssohn I would consider working on...

Mendelssohn landed on a style and never changed - he's best at joyful magical exuberance.  Some say his life was too smooth, easy and happy.  Beethoven, Schubert, had some tough challenges in life - you can hear it in their music; even Mozart had his challenges, less so Haydn.  Chopin was exiled from his homeland and seems to have a natural ability to explore pathos.  Schumann was generally a happy guy but his long delayed fulfillment in love inspired all those passionate piano works up to 1840, when he finally got married to Clara, then his music changed.  Brahms is more of a mystery - I think, like Beethoven, he was a great intellect and would contemplate fate and come up with profound thematic material.

[transitional]

I haven't listened to much Mendelssohn, but the only Mendelssohn piece I've really wholeheartedly enjoyed was the 1st Trio. The Lieder Ohne Worte have some good ideas, but I don't think they get enough time to expand or properly develop, and besides, they're really rhythmically simple in places.

[busondelssohn]

It's ironic that I'm asking this on a piano forum, but do y'alls know any of his non piano compositions? Like his Lieder im Freien zu singen? I've sang a bunch of those with a choir. Through the songs the style changes rapidly, but it's basically the epitome of that direction of German songs.

[wildman]

My guess is because he was a composer using the classical style in the Romantic era. Classical composers wrote for the mind more than the heart.

[transitional]

My guess is because he was a composer using the classical style in the Romantic era. Classical composers wrote for the mind more than the heart.

Schubert did have a way to make that work for him. I think all music is written reflecting personal feelings to an extent, but it can be a lot more subtle in things like late Mozart, who often used chromatic chords and frequent modulations to take out a breath. Beethoven is a more obvious use of using the classical mold to show personal frustration. Romantic composers simply changed the way this personal expression was carried out.

[busondelssohn]

Schubert did have a way to make that work for him. I think all music is written reflecting personal feelings to an extent, but it can be a lot more subtle in things like late Mozart, who often used chromatic chords and frequent modulations to take out a breath. Beethoven is a more obvious use of using the classical mold to show personal frustration. Romantic composers simply changed the way this personal expression was carried out.

Sorry for the dumb questions, I'm not really good at music history, but was Schubert technically classical or romantic? I've only listened to two pieces from his piano ouevre: Wanderer fantasy and the Ständchen. Oh, I've also accompanied a friend singing the Erlkönig and the Forelle.
Just going of those, I would have guessed romantic, but I heard he's like a mix or something...
As said, tell me if I'm wrong...

[transitional]

Sorry for the dumb questions, I'm not really good at music history, but was Schubert technically classical or romantic?

As John Reed aptly described, Schubert essentially encompassed the classical form but romantic feeling. His writing feels in the vein of Beethoven but is harmonically very distinct, and also much more simple and refined.

This sonata is written in a much less innovative format than Beethoven's sonatas, possibly even behind its time with the rhythmic simplicity in the first movement, but where Schubert stands out is his poetic vision that makes everything sing for long periods and entrancing the listener with well-placed, effortless modulations. You tell me if it's classical or romantic, but I definitely hear it as something in the middle.