Bernstein says that Beethoven was the greatest composer

[(poco) Sforzando]

More to the point, his problem is that he thinks he can convince others of the supremacy of Mendelssohn on account of his precocity as a youth, as if that has any bearing to the net worth of a composer's output. Mendelssohn is the greatest composer not because he wrote the greatest music, but because he was the greatest prodigy. The logic is so fundamentally flawed it's useless to even argue with it.

You silly nerd, and a silly nerd in a red turban at that. Can you not read:

Every single note in a Mendelssohn work was thought over and has a meaning and place in there. His education in music was extremely great, and that was evident in his works. He knew what he was doing when he was writing a piece of music.

What does any of that have to do with age? Of what other composer can anything like that be said? Sheesh!

[Florestan]

Of what other composer can anything like that be said?

Saul Dzorelashvili? 

[lukeottevanger]

Ah well, 20 new replies since I started writing this - never mind, I'll let it stand and then see what I've missed!

It's not exactly the musical analysis which was asked for, but it was an attempt, so let's look at it sentence by sentence

His music has the charm, beauty, color that Beethoven lacks.

Unquantifiable but also, I suspect, not a statement which chimes with most people's experience. We need only take a single piece of Beethoven's - say the op 131 quartet - to find as much charm, beauty and colour as can be packed into a piece of music, certainly as much as in anything by Mendelssohn. The thing is, though, that the Beethoven piece goes so much further than just an attractive surface; Mendelssohn is capable of doing so, but it occurs much less frequently.

Mendelssohn's music also has a very personal and deep voice, that comes from the very essence of Mendelssohn. One needs to be attentive to that voice when listening to Mendelssohn.

The same could be said of every great composer, I suspect, but funnily enough, of all the great composers, my own view is that Mendelssohn's personal voice is one of the least personal, except sometimes in a negative way (e.g. 'this piece sounds fairly bland, so it might be by Mendelssohn') - compare him with his contemporary and compatriot, Schumann. Actually, my earlier example of a prodigy, Saint Saens, is another great composer whose personal voice is a little more general than (say) Faure, his contemporary and compatriot. One could begin to wonder whether the fluency and ease enjoyed by such prodigies inhibits the formation of a really deeply personal style - perhaps they absorb the standard techniques so easily as youngsters that when the time comes at which most composers go through the fires of personal crisis in order to forge their own personal style, they are not able to. Berlioz said of Saint-Saens 'Il sait tout, mais il manque d'inexpérience' (He knows everything, but lacks inexperience), and it's not really a joke: the most interesting composers fight to gain musical insights which belong to them and which help them write music which is true to themselves. Berlioz did, but Saint-Saens didn't, IMO, and I'm not sure that Mendelssohn did either.

Of course, the example which springs to my mind is my own favourite, Janacek  - mind you, he's my own favourite, the composer who chimes with my own tastes closest, and who FWIW did not appreciate Beethoven a great deal, but who I am still happy to is state dwarfed by Beethoven in most ways. Janacek's personal style is one of the most easy to hear in all music - a couple of notes by him by him could be by no one else. But this style didn't arrive fully formed. Janacek was the very opposite of a prodigy, he developed extremely slowly, like a fine wine  . By the time he was about 40 his music began to sound recognisably 'Janacekian' but even then he subjected it to a continuous (30 more years) and very conscious process which he called integration, which stripped away everything extraneous until all that was left was pure Janacek. Janacek is an extreme example, but there are literally dozens of others who did similar things. Mendelssohn is an extremely fine composer, but I don't think he ever went through anything like this tortuous process which is necessary for a composer's music to become more than merely technically fluent and, in Mendelssohn's case, ocasionally powerful (as I say, perhaps his prodigy status meant that he didn't need to, but this is a loss IMO)

Every single note in a Mendelssohn work was thought over and has a meaning and place in there.

There are composers (many of them) for whom this is true, and I don't doubt that at times Mendelssohn is one of them. But it is less true for him than it is for so many others - Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Bach - the list is very long indeed, actually.

When Mendelssohn was 15 his music teachers have told him that they have nothing else to teach him. His education in music was extremely great, and that was evident in his works.

I've already gone into this - prodigy and fluency is not a way to measure a composer's greatness, and what is more, as I said a couple of paragraphs back, being too good too soon can inhibit further growth because to be a truly human artist one must go through the normal human process of learning (the Berlioz quotation again - 'He knows everything, but lacks inexperience'). There used to be another group of musicians who were so skilled in their childhoods that they were not allowed to go through the usual processes to develop naturally, and instead were kept, artificially, as boy-men - they were called castrati  In a certain respect, compositional prodigies run the danger of this same artificiality too, because although they are not literally denied the ability to develop naturally, they don't have a technical need for it, and so risk passing by the personal development it can entail.

He knew what he was doing when he was writing a piece of music.

I would suggest that this is an accomplishment shared by more than one other composer......

[(poco) Sforzando]

Saul Dzorelashvili? 

The essential word in the question was "composer."

[BachQ]

He knew what he was doing when he was writing a piece of music.

I'm convinced .......... Mendelssohn's the greatest ..........

[Don]

Debating this issue is a waste of time because of Saul's basic premise:

Saul's favorite composer MUST be the greatest composer.

[karlhenning]

Luke, your posts are always value added to any discussion.

[lukeottevanger]

Or just added verbosity......

[lukeottevanger]

Still, I'm quite tickled by my image of the child prodigy as castrato......

[BachQ]

Debating this issue is a waste of time because of Saul's basic premise:

Saul's favorite composer MUST be the greatest composer.

In that respect, Saul and 71 dB have much in common .........

[Saul]

Given the context, who knows what Saul means by "nerd"? 

I mean troll, but I cant say it here...

[karlhenning]

Nor is Andrei any troll.

[Don]

In that respect, Saul and 71 dB have much in common .........

Rod Corkin can be added to this list.

[karlhenning]

Oh, I'd clean forgot about the Corkster; thanks for the chortle, Don!

[Florestan]

I mean troll, but I cant say it here...

Of course not: you'd be like a thief shouting "Catch the thieves!"...

[Saul]

The essential word in the question was "composer."

And what have you ever composed in your life?

 *** Nothing***

[Saul]

Of course not: you'd be like a thief shouting "Catch the thieves!"...

I can guess youre not a Robin Hood fan....

[lukeottevanger]

And what have you ever composed in your life?

  *** Nothing***

I wouldn't ask that question if I was you. I believe Sfz is quite an accomplished composer.

[Saul]

I wouldn't ask that question if I was you. I believe Sfz is quite an accomplished composer.

Well if I didnt compose anything according to him , then he didnt compose a thing according to me...

[(poco) Sforzando]

And what have you ever composed in your life?

 *** Nothing***

At age 18 I was accepted as a composition major at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Bit that.

I decided on another career path after realizing (unlike some of the wannabees here) that I did not have the drive or talent to pursue music professionally. A word to the wise should be sufficient.