Felix Mendelssohn’s Kindness: An Anecdote

I recently read this short anecdote about Felix Mendelssohn. I have long regarded him as a “honorary” British composer. The story is self-explanatory, however a few words about Henry Chorley may be of interest. Born in Blackley Hurst Lancashire on 15 December 1808, he became one of the leading music critics of his day. He also wrote libretti for operas, perhaps most famously for Arthur Sullivan’s The Saphire Necklace (c.1862). He was the author of many books, novels and plays as well as being a regular contributor to the long running Athenaeum journal. Henry Fothergill Chorley died in London on 16 February 1872. 

Grove’s Dictionary explains Chorley’s musical tastes: “he disliked and Wagner’s he detested. Schumann’s music repelled him. He admired Mendelssohn, however, almost without reservation, and in 1847 attempted to persuade him to set his own adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale. It could have been a wonderful work if written…

Henry Chorley, an English critic and musical writer of much note, on one of his trips to the continent went to Leipzig for the purpose, among other things, of meeting Mendelssohn and hearing some of his works. Shortly after his arrival he was taken with an acute attack of illness and confined to his room, a small apartment in a crowded German inn. He had met Mendelssohn and other musicians before his illness. It is not pleasant to be sick among strangers in a foreign land, and his feelings were not of the most enjoyable kind. His illness had been known but a few hours when he heard a heavy tramping up the stairs. It stopped at his door. "Who is there? “He called. "A grand piano to be put in your room," was the reply, "and Dr Mendelssohn is coming directly."

And soon Dr Mendelssohn did come, with his warm smile and hearty greeting. "If you like," said he, "we will make some music here to-day, since you must not go out," and down he sat and began to play a lot of music about which Chorley had expressed some curiosity the day before. For hours

Mendelssohn stayed there delighting, as Chorley modestly said, "an obscure stranger as zealously and cheerfully as if his time could not be measured by gold, and as if his company was not eagerly and importunately sought by the 'best of the best,' who repaired to Leipzig with little purpose but to seek his acquaintance."

The present tale was taken from Anecdotes of Great Musicians by W. Francis Gates (London, Weekes & Co., 1896)