19th Century Homes of Mendelssohn and Schumann

 

On Thursday we visited a location that was definitely a highlight for me on this trip, the walls Mendelssohn Haus. Felix Mendelssohn is one of my absolute favorite composers, so it was incredible being able to walk up stairs, down halls, and through rooms in which he himself walked! The building itself is quite tall, containing four stories; though the museum inside only allowed us on two of those floors. The first floor was interesting with its biographical information and interactive conducting room, but it was the second floor that really fueled my excitement. Upstairs, there are several rooms furnished as they would have been in the 19^th century with furnishing and objects from either Mendelssohn’s possession or from the same era. His study in particular was reconstructed in reference to a watercolour by Felix Moscheles (godson of Mendelssohn) that was painted in 1847, just shortly after Mendelssohn’s death. As we roamed from room to room we saw portraits of the Mendelssohn family, clothes from the fashion of the day, original letters and musical scores, and (much to my excitement!) two pianos from the 19^th century! The first was a square piano with mahogany veneer from around 1830 and the second was a “historical grand piano” built in Breslau in 1848; the piano stool accompanying it was from the possession of Julius Schubring who was a friend of the composer. The most elegant area in the house was the music room, where Mendelssohn and his contemporaries would have performed. In the midst of this room with mint green walls and a dazzling chandelier above, there is an incredible Bösendorfer piano of which I had the pleasure of playing! It was an incredible experience and one that I will cherish for a lifetime.

 

Next we headed to the Schumann Haus which was not as extensive but very interesting none-the-less. We arrived about 40 minutes early to the museum, but when the staff saw that there were quite a few of us wanting to come in they opened their doors early. This was the house in which Clara and Robert Schumann moved into following their marriage in September 1840. On the first floor (where the couple lived) there are some exhibition rooms with writings and musical scores, as well as two historical pianos. The remainder of the building is used by an independent full-time primary school named after Clara Schumann. As we walked by the building we were able to see elementary children running and playing  in a courtyard during some kind of recess.

After that a group of us headed to the Panorama Tower, one of the tallest commercial buildings in the city of Leipzig. We took an elevator up nine floors and walked up a couple additional flights of stairs to finally reach the top, which was well worth the trip. The view was quite breathtaking and brought to light just how large the city of Leipzig is and how we had only scratched the surface of how many sights there are to see in this beautiful city.