The months from late 1826 through to late 1827 were eventful ones for the 17- and then 18-year-old Felix Mendelssohn. He toured around Europe, read literary and philosophical volumes by the cartload, immersed himself in translations of Shakespeare's works, and entered the University of Berlin. It comes as no surprise to learn, then, that he composed somewhat less music during 1827 than had thus far filled each of his individual years. One major orchestral work, the Overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream, was first heard in 1827, but it was composed back in the summer of 1826; and eliminating that, there is no orchestral music at all from 1827, and just a single major chamber piece. But there was time during these busy days to put a few piano pieces to paper—Mendelssohn would always find or make time to write for the piano, it seems. One of these 1827 items is a fantasia composed around the Irish folk-tune The Last Rose of Summer in E major, published during the year of its creation as Op. 15.

The Fantasy on "The Last Rose" can create the impression of being a unattractively multi-sectioned work; and it might rightly be said that few pianists seem really to be able to make it hang together very persuasively. But Mendelssohn's plan is clear and even concise, and what can seem a too-often interrupted flow quickly becomes something quite more attractive when one digests the way that Mendelssohn has taken the lovely Irish melody and laid it out its basic gestures in a series of plain and unadorned Adagio passages which are individually separated by quick, agitated episodes that draw loosely from them. The Presto music at first disregards the E major set up by the tune and moves into the parallel minor, but towards the end of the fantasy it at last accepts the inevitable and takes up the warm major mode in good faith. Closing out the piece is a long Andante con moto that starts up where the Adagio passages left off and sings its way to the final quiet bar.

© All Music Guide

Portions of Content Provided by All Music Guide.
© 2008 All Media Guide, LLC. All Music Guide is a registered trademark of All Media Guide, LLC.