Felix Mendelssohn House

Not just one of the most significant composers of the 19th century, Felix Mendelssohn was also a virtuoso, conductor, organist and painter. On February 3, 1809, he was born in Hamburg, then grew up in Berlin. In Leipzig, he founded the first German music conservatory. The Mendelssohn House located there is now giving him a very special gift.

In the newly expanded first floor, guests enter a unique chamber featuring an installation with 13 speakers, each "embodying" a certain group of instruments, in which the guests themselves can take on the role of conductor. Behind a digital podium, they're able to control the tempo and volume and to compare interpretations.

For the installation, recordings were made of Mendelssohn's overtures to "A Midnight Summer Night's Dream" and the "Reformation Symphony." Guests can get acquainted with the special role of a conductor, which Mendelssohn helped turn into an institution. In 1835, he became the Kapellmeister of Leipzig's Gewandhaus Orchestra. In 1841, he was named royal Prussian court Kapellmeister.

Mendelssohn's onetime home in Leipzig, built in 1844 and 1845, has been open to visitors since 1997. After a ten-month renovation period, it was reopened in February. The composer lived there from 1845 until his death in 1847, along with his wife Cecile and his five children, Carl, Marie, Paul, Felix and Lili.

In 1993, the Felix Meldelssohn Bartholdy Foundation purchased the house in order to prevent its collapse. A museum preserves and looks after all things Mendelssohn, drawing 40,000 visitors annually from around the world. Germany's federal government has since included the Mendelssohn House in its blue book of the country's cultural monuments.

On the occasion of the reopening of the Mendelssohn House, the Foundation received three Mendelssohn originals from the estate of Cecile Lowenthal-Hensel, great-granddaughter of Felix' sister Fanny Hensel. They include the watercolor "Comer See, Blick auf Cadenabbia," long believed to be lost. Mendelssohn didn't just compose; he also spoke various languages and loved to paint.

A notable feature of the exhibition is a five-meter-wide and nearly four-meter-tall paternoster display cabinet. It houses a total of 40 articles, including scores, letters, music instruments, coins and personal objects. They rotate slowly before the viewers' eyes, and the corresponding descriptions can be read on tablet computers.

The stairway and furniture in the Mendelssohn House are authentic, offering a glimpse into how the composer lived with his family. His work studio was decorated in accord with a watercolor by English painter Felix Moscheles. Two cabinets with original furniture and the music salon are also both worth taking in.

Felix Mendelssohn was a sociable person and kept up a good relationship with his family, particularly his sister Fanny, who died in the same year as he did. Among other things, the exhibition documents his countless acquaintances in the arts scene, musical role models and peers, as well as his many trips to various European countries.

"Even at the time of his death, people knew that they had lost a great," said Cornelia Thierbach, who heads the Mendelssohn Museum. But just a few years after his death, Richard Wagner denounced him as an mediocre - because Jewish - composer. In 1936, the Nazis tore down Leipzig's monument to the composer, and a new one wasn't dedicated until 2008.

The musuem's expansion cost 1.5 million euros, and its younger visitors profit from the changes as well. A children's museum offers playful insights into the significance of Mendelssohn's music. The project is supported by the foundation Leipzig hilft Kindern (Leipzig Helps Children).