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Rating: 
Summary: A landmark in Mendelssohn scholarship
Review: As a Mendelssohn specialist I pre-ordered this book, and have been working my way through it for the past few weeks. I cannot recommend it highly enough to anyone who is interested in this remarkable composer and his music. It has many points to commend it for scholars(extensive recourse to important but obscure archival documents, correction of major and minor factual errors that have persisted in all the previous Mendelssohn biographies, etc.), and just as much to commend it to general readerships: it's elegantly written, well balanced, informative on contextual, musical, and biographical fronts, etc. Fanny is arguably as present in the pages of this book as she was in Mendelssohn's life. And, not least of all, it's remarkably affordable. I am a former student of Professor Todd (having gotten my Ph.D. from Duke University in 1994), but can also say that I offer these remarks without any bias other than that of being one who admires the music and life of Mendelssohn. If this reads like an endorsement, it is. I highly recommend the
volume to all who want to know more about Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy.
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