International Mendelssohn Festival

Musical child prodgies

Felix Mendelssohn was only 14 when he wrote his Second Piano Quartet. When his opus 2 was published, he had already composed symphonies, choral works, concertos and piano and organ pieces, but these only appeared in print later on. This impressive catalogue of early works already provided evidence of Mendelssohn’s considerable talent and versatility. Camille Saint-Saëns in turn wrote symphonies all his life – the earliest of them when he was just seven years old. But it wasn’t until the age of 85 that he turned his attention to the genre of sonatas for the piano and a single woodwind instrument. Saint-Saëns wrote the Bassoon Sonata Op. 168 in Algiers in 1921 at a time when he was responding to his longing to travel, which took him first and foremost to North Africa.