Bernstein records Mendelssohn’s career without commenting on his personal faith, or the Jewish and Christian aspects of his musical inspiration and output – these were well enough known and a matter of discussion in 1909, when “Some Jewish Witnesses for Christ” was published:
Mendelssohn, Felix Bartholdi, was born at Hamburg, February 3, 1809, and died 1857. When he was four years old his parents removed to Berlin. His father at once procured teachers in music for him, as he had begun thus early to show great talent in that direction. His teachers on the piano were Louis Bezer, and Zelter, the friend of Goethe. The chapel choirmaster, Mr. Hennings, gave him instruction on the violin. The father of the poet, Paul Heyse, who later became the celebrated philologist, was his private tutor in the home of the Mendelssohns, where the intellectual aristocracy of Berlin frequently assembled.
When Felix was nine…
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