Revisiting Mendelssohn's Octet

Video source record: https://www.loc.gov/item/2021690188/

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Summary

Larry Todd discusses Mendelssohn's Octet (1825), usually viewed as epitomizing the composer's astonishing, early full maturity, and as the culmination of his extraordinary precocity. If Goethe and Heine had already heralded the composer as the "second Mozart," in the Octet the adolescent composer broke new ground by producing a richly hued masterpiece that explored on many levels the idea of virtuosity and indeed challenged the limits of chamber music. Drawing on autograph manuscripts held in the Library of Congress, this lecture reviews the complex early history of this masterpiece, and considers how the youthful inspiration of 1825 "aged" into the familiar icon of chamber music that it remains. Presented as part of the American Musicological Society lecture series at the Library of Congress.

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Details

• Source collection: Library of Congress
• License: Public Domain
• Category: Film

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1. Primary source record: https://www.loc.gov/item/2021690188/
2. Topic lookup: Google Scholar search for “Revisiting Mendelssohn's Octet”