4 Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Sonata, 1823

The composer Felix Mendelssohn began his musical life as a child prodigy. As he grew he acquired a broad knowledge of the arts, becoming a fine water colourist and poet as well as a composer of considerable imagination and skill.

The Brotherton Collection contains eleven autograph scores by Mendelssohn, including the manuscript of his Sonata for piano in B flat minor, composed when he was just fourteen years old. Two years later he composed the overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream, translating the poetry of Shakespeare into music of startling beauty and originality.

The Brotherton Collection also includes 76 letters from all periods of Mendelssohn's life. The great majority are to his friend, the Bohemian composer and piano virtuoso Ignaz Moscheles who was at one time his teacher. Three letters are in English, one to the music critic and editor Henry F. Chorley and two to the composer Thomas Attwood. In his letter to Chorley, Mendelssohn describes his joy at the arrival of his third child.