Felix Mendelssohn

Mendelssohn was himself both pianist and violinist, as well as composer and conductor. He wrote his first chamber music at the age of ten and by the age of 14, he had completed 12 symphonies for orchestral music. By the age of 17, he astonished the world with a true masterpiece, his Overture to William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. 

In August 1829, he visited the uninhabited Island of Staffa off the West Coast of Scotland (near Mull and Iona). Here, Mendelssohn was inspired by Staffa's most famous landmark Fingal's Cave. Tremendously impressed by the beauty and immensity of the place, he sketched the first notes of the Hebrides Overture. Mendelssohn wonderfully captured the deep, rhythmic sounds of the sea waves as they enter the cave then cascade down the huge hexagonal rock pillars. 

Fingal's Cave is formed within tertiary basalt lava flows, which have cooled to form hexagonal columns. This place and Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland are the most famous sites of basalt columns in Britain. The cave stretches back into the island for a distance of 227 feet and has a height of around 66 feet. 

Hebrides Overture was finally performed in London in 1832 to immediate success. 

He won enormous critical acclaim during his brief lifetime, and was feted throughout Europe, especially in England. His social graces soon made him a court favourite, and his music, notably the oratorio Elijah, first performed in Birmingham in 1846, influenced the musical taste of Victorian England. 

His death at the tragically young age of 38 robbed the music world of an outstanding conductor and an inventive musical talent.

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