The Authenticity of Genius - Christopher Hogwood with players from the Royal Academy of Music

Although Mozart is the usual example of genius that springs to mind (a combination of youth and perfection), in this lecture Felix Mendelssohn is proposed as a more precocious example of the same qualities, with an even greater range of abilities (painting and languages in addition to both composing and performing). As a test case we will examine his Octet for Strings, Op. 20, written at the age of sixteen and performed for this lecture by players from the Royal Academy of Music. The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website.