# Revisiting Mendelssohn's Octet

Larry Todd discusses Mendelssohn's Octet (1825), usually viewed as epitomizing the composer's astonishing, early full maturity, and as the culmination of his extraordinary precocity. If Goethe and Heine had already heralded the composer as the "second Mozart," in the Octet the adolescent composer broke new ground by producing a richly hued masterpiece that explored on many levels the idea of virtuosity and indeed challenged the limits of chamber music. Drawing on autograph manuscripts held in the Library of Congress, this lecture reviews the complex early history of this masterpiece, and considers how the youthful inspiration of 1825 "aged" into the familiar icon of chamber music that it remains. Presented as part of the American Musicological Society lecture series at the Library of Congress.

- Kind: Talk
- Year: 2016
- By: Library Of Congress
- Genres: Music
- Archive: [Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/item/2021690188/)
- Licence or status: Rights statement at the Library of Congress (as the archive states it)
- Credit: Library of Congress
- Who can watch: Tweens profiles and older (the archive gives no rating; placed by Invisible Network from its collection and subjects)

[Watch now](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/watch/archive/loc/2021690188?play=1)