Jonathan O'Neill’s Reviews > Mendelssohn: A Life in Music > Status Update
Jonathan O'Neill
is on page 154 of 736
The Octet in Eb Major, Op.20. A piece that, at 16 yrs old, catapulted Felix into the Western Canon of Great composers. "No work of Mozart from a comparable age matches the consummate skill of the Octet." (Not that it's a competition!)
Just incase you couldn't tell, we've got a prodigy of the highest order on our hands, people, and this piece is brilliant from beginning to end. Get it in your ear holes now!
— Jul 08, 2025 07:04AM
Just incase you couldn't tell, we've got a prodigy of the highest order on our hands, people, and this piece is brilliant from beginning to end. Get it in your ear holes now!
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Jonathan’s Previous Updates
Jonathan O'Neill
is 92% done
"...may you taste only the sweets and none of the bitterness of authorship... may the public pelt you with roses, and never with sand; and may the printer's ink never draw black lines upon your soul"
- Felix to Fanny
Finally, after he had discouraged her from publishing throughout their entire lives, Fanny went and did it anyway and asking one last time for his blessing, Felix comes around.
— Jan 06, 2026 04:09AM
- Felix to Fanny
Finally, after he had discouraged her from publishing throughout their entire lives, Fanny went and did it anyway and asking one last time for his blessing, Felix comes around.
Jonathan O'Neill
is 87% done
[Felix] has a glorious dark eye, and Byron's expression of a 'dome of thought' could never be more appropriately applied than to his lofty and intellectual forehead...
...Dark, lustrous, unfathomable eyes... They were black, but without the usual opaqueness of black eyes, shining, not with a surface light, but with a pure, serene, planetary flame.
- J.Bayard Taylor
— Jan 04, 2026 04:50AM
...Dark, lustrous, unfathomable eyes... They were black, but without the usual opaqueness of black eyes, shining, not with a surface light, but with a pure, serene, planetary flame.
- J.Bayard Taylor
Jonathan O'Neill
is 78% done
[Wagner played] the seductive Venusberg theme from Tannhauser, on which he was then at work. When Felix asked, "What is that?" Wagner replied, "Do you think I am going to reveal it to you?" whereupon Felix at once reproduced it himself at the piano.
— Jan 01, 2026 07:39PM
Jonathan O'Neill
is 74% done
I'm thankful that, while this is very much a Felix bio, the author gives Fanny a notable amount of page time as well, following her progress as a composer and illuminating derivatives between her and her brother's works where applicable.
Her 'Das Jahr' is well worth your time. A cycle of piano character pieces on the 12 months. Some beauties in there, for sure!
— Dec 30, 2025 04:50AM
Her 'Das Jahr' is well worth your time. A cycle of piano character pieces on the 12 months. Some beauties in there, for sure!
Jonathan O'Neill
is on page 395 of 736
Proud to announce that Felix was my Top Artist on Spotify this year with 15217 minutes listened! :D
I'm not sure that tops my Beethoven listening from several years ago but it still puts me in the top 0.001% of global fans.... Let's be honest, no one on Earth listened to more Mendelssohn than me this year! :D
— Dec 03, 2025 07:15PM
I'm not sure that tops my Beethoven listening from several years ago but it still puts me in the top 0.001% of global fans.... Let's be honest, no one on Earth listened to more Mendelssohn than me this year! :D
Jonathan O'Neill
is on page 394 of 736
At one musical matinée given by Felix, Liszt appeared in Hungarian uniform and played a series of pyrotechnical variations on a Hungarian folk melody. Then, insisting his host reciprocate, Liszt watched incredulously as Felix replicated the Hungarian melody, executed one variation after another, and managed to imitate Liszt's "movements and raptures" without offending him.
"Hold my beer."
- Mendelssohn
— Oct 06, 2025 03:42AM
"Hold my beer."
- Mendelssohn
Jonathan O'Neill
is on page 372 of 736
Schumann and Mendelssohn were largely responsible for the 19th-century Schubert revival. Schumann discovered several unpublished symphonies and Felix took the decision, and the time, to resuscitate the "Great" symphony (no.9) and "effectively transformed Schubert from a respected "ballad" composer to a symphonist of stature".
— Sep 23, 2025 04:24AM
Jonathan O'Neill
is on page 330 of 736
On Fanny's birthday Felix praised her new compositions and... later alluded to some in his own piano miniatures but could not bring himself to support her entering the lists as a "professional" composer. This issue would haunt the final ten years of Fanny's life.
Fanny: "It's crucial to have your consent, for without it I might not undertake anything of the kind."
— Sep 03, 2025 05:30AM
Fanny: "It's crucial to have your consent, for without it I might not undertake anything of the kind."
Jonathan O'Neill
is on page 264 of 736
The first 6 'Lieder ohne Worte' (Op.19b) were released in Bonn in late 1833, the official debut of the new term, and indeed new genre, which would become synonomous with Mendelssohnism.
— Aug 17, 2025 05:31AM
Jonathan O'Neill
is on page 238 of 736
Disappointed with Felix's reaction to the music of Hector Berlioz. I knew this already from Berlioz's memoirs but, having now read a bit about Felix, his dislike/dismissal of B's work seem at odds with his generally open-minded and sponge-like nature regarding all types of music.
Though he enjoyed international success, I don't think the musical world was fully ready for some of Berlioz's more radical innovations...
— Jul 22, 2025 07:08AM
Though he enjoyed international success, I don't think the musical world was fully ready for some of Berlioz's more radical innovations...
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Ulysse wrote: "Ah man, at 16 I wrote a punk/ska song called Priest that went "God bless flat-chested women / They make my life worth living / If it weren't for them I'd lose my head / Cuz I wanna be a priest, I w..."🤣 Are you kidding me? It sounds like you were a songwriting prodigy in your own right! 😁
That's very kind of you to say, mate. I often wonder if people think I'm a bit strange for banging on about music on a book site but at the same time I do pretty regularly get people telling me that my posts have inspired them to go and listen to such and such a piece or asking where they should start with Classical music.
That and every person I know that listens to Classical is on this site so it seems the ideal place to talk about it! 😆
Holy crap, top 5 favourite is a tooough one. I will give you 5 but I'll come back to this post throughout the day as I make my choices! 😁 And we won't call them top 5 but the first 5 favourites that come to mind:
1. 1999 recording of Mozart's Requiem with Claudio Abbado and the Berliner Philharmoniker
2. Daniel Barenboim's 1984 Full recording of the Beethoven Sonatas3. Andras Schiff's 2003 live recording of the Goldberg Variations
4. Martha Argerich's 2002 recording of 24 Chopin Preludes and the 2nd Piano Sonata.5. Herbert Von Karajan and the Berliner Philharmonikers 1993 'Eroica' Symphony (The mini-fugue that begins around the 7th minute of the Marcia Funebre 2nd movement is one of my favourite pieces of music. Period!)
Bonus:- Stanislav Neuhaus' 1965 recording of Scriabin's Piano Concerto Op.20
And because I'm currently obsessed with Mendelssohn:
- Jan Lisiecki's 2019 'Mendelssohn' which contains Piano Concerto no.1 & 2, the Variations Serieuses and a few other select pieces. There is also a live video recording of Yuja Wang playing the 1st Piano Concerto... Absolutely mesmerising!
Ok, I'll stop now! Needless to say, I barely scratched the surface! Tell me some of your favourites! You already mentioned some of your favourite composers, what are some of your favourite pieces? :)
Wow thanks for your reply, Jonathan, I will definitely be checking some of those out! I'll let you know what I think.
Ok here is my attempt at a top ten. Keep in mind these go way back to my mid-twenties, about two decades ago, but the following are recordings I was obsessed with for years.1. Christopher Hogwood and James Bowman’s 1976 Stabat Mater by Vivaldi. The album also has Nisi Dominus whose 4th movement, Cum Demerit has to be one of the most chillingly melancholy pieces I have ever heard. It sounds like what I imagine entering the kingdom of death will be like. I used to listen to this on repeat while working as my dad’s accountant.
2. Bach: Sonatas and Partitas by Nathan Milstein 1975. My favourite is Sonata No.3 in C Major I. Adagio.
3. Anything Bach by Glenn Gould, but if I had to choose just one of his recordings I would go with the Well-Tempered Clavier. Can listening to Bach make you smarter? Uh, duh!
4. Brandenburg Concertos. Trevor Pinnock. 1988. Put on your powdered wig and trip the light fantastic!
5. Schubert: Impromptus, Moments Musicaux, Piano Sonata by Wilhelm Kempff, 1970. They’re all beautiful but I especially love the 4 Impromptus D.899 which take all sorts of unexpected turns.
6. Schumann (I have a soft spot for the Schu-Schu boys) Kinderszenen; Kreisleriana by Martha Argerich, 1984. My cd doesn’t work anymore, I’ve listened to it too many times.
7. Pollini’s version of Chopin’s Preludes, 1980. The year of my birth, both when the recording was made and when I heard it for the first time. I have to listen to the Argerich now you've recommended it and be reborn maybe.
8. Brahms: Ein Deutsches Requiem by John Eliot Gardiner, 1991. Johannes must have really loved his mommy.
9. Lyric Pieces of Edvard Grieg by Emil Gilels, 1974. Dreamier music simply does not exist.
10. Leos Janacek: Piano Works by Rudolf Firkusny. Yeah, I love the piano.
Bonus: my introduction to the amazing Béla Bartok was a disk called Bartók: Sonata, Contrast & Rhapsodies, Hyperion 1990. It contains the Romanian Folkdances, perfect little gems of sound, very easy listening, for Béla.
I'm throwing one more in for good measure:Martha Argerich plays Schumann Piano Quintet at the Israel Philharmonic - 11.10.18
Just discovered this rendering for the first time a few days ago. Beautiful performance of a beauty of a piano quintet!
Thank you kindly, Ulysse!I'm not overly familiar with the Vivaldi, Grieg, Janacek OR Bartok pieces so can't wait to get stuck into those!
Cum Demerit has to be one of the most chillingly melancholy pieces I have ever heard. It sounds like what I imagine entering the kingdom of death will be like.
Hey, everyone's gotta have a death song, man! Mine is Bach's Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 582.
I told my partner to put it on her phone so if I ever go into sudden cardiac arrest or am for whatever reason bleeding out on the footpath, she can pull out her phone and play it for maximum dramatic effect. You can't waste moments like this!... She didn't take me seriously 🤷♂️
I listened to the Pollini Preludes for ages, just out of habit more than anything, and they're perfectly fine but I find him too safe now whenever I go back to his recordings. Not just of the Preludes either. He's so superbly clinical that I don't feel any uniqueness come through in his performance. In a way I'm being a little bit ridiculous, for 2 reasons; this could be seen as a positive because it's serving the music over the performer which should, arguably always be the case. And because Gould, who I used to absolutely love (and still do on occasion) now slightly grinds my gears for the opposite reason, I can't hear anything BUT Gould when I listen to his recordings. His Mozart sonatas make my ears bleed, I don't think he understood where the charm of his music lies at all. His Bach is definitely brilliant and he is pretty much single-handedly responsible for a massive resurgence in Bach interest but, yeah, I'm hot and cold with him but with a lot of respect.... Look, I'm very inconsistent and hard to please, ok! 😂
Hey, in large part thanks to your posts and our conversations, I've been getting back into classical music. What would you say are your top-5 favourite classical recordings that I should listen to (any period).