for instrumentation was sound and vivid, and his mastery of vocal effect unquestioned.
He was a pianist and organist of the first order, and a good viola-player. Although his keyboard technique was ample, with some peculiar excellencies in crispness and clarity, he disdained the use of it for its own sake. His strength lay in the absolute rendering of the musical idea as he conceived it. As an interpreter he was therefore exceptionally able, especially as regards the works of Bach, Mozart and Beethoven. His powers of improvisation were superb, and he had an extraordinary musical memory. As a conductor he was strict and conservative, but so tactful and full of enthusiasm as to command unbounded devotion from players and singers.
He had the gift of free self-expression in speech and deed, and the desire to impress himself upon others. His mind was clear and orderly, his sympathies warm, and his spirit contagious. Hence he was a brilliant and powerful teacher, especially with advanced students. Here he was the opposite of Schumann. Hence, while the latter left almost no disciples and was not generally understood till long after 1850, Mendelssohn inspired a host of pupils and admirers in many lands, so that his immediate influence for a generation was immense. These followers, some of them close imitators, are sometimes called 'the Mendelssohnian school,' though they were not closely affiliated, except, perhaps, in England. To this class are often referred several masters of the second rank, especially Hiller, Bennett, Gade and Reinecke, with other leaders at Leipsic, although in most cases these had strong characteristics of their own which widely distinguished them from Mendelssohn, particularly as their work continued for decades after his death, when they were subject to altogether different influences.
Ferdinand Hiller (d. 1885), born in 1811 at Frankfort, came of a wealthy
Jewish family. There and at Weimar he studied with Aloys Schmitt,
Hummel and others, developing precociously as pianist and composer.
After visiting Vienna, from 1828 he lived at Paris, playing much in public,
especially works of Bach and Beethoven, and associating with leading musicians.
From 1836 he was in Frankfort, conducting the Cäcilienverein. In
1839 Rossini paved the way for his first opera at Milan, and in 1840 Mendelssohn
took up at Leipsic his effective oratorio Die Zerstörung Jerusalems.
After a year in Rome with Baini, in 1843-4 he conducted the Gewandhaus
concerts, and later produced two operas at Dresden. From 1847 he was
