Editing Felix Mendelssohn (section)

====Early works====
The young Mendelssohn was greatly influenced in his childhood by the music of both J. S. Bach and [[Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach|C. P. E. Bach]], and of Beethoven, [[Joseph Haydn]] and Mozart; traces of these composers can be seen in the 13 early [[String symphonies (Mendelssohn)|string symphonies]]. These were written from 1821 to 1823, when he was between the ages of 12 and 14, principally for performance in the Mendelssohn household, and not published or publicly performed until long after his death.{{sfn|Mercer-Taylor|2000|pp=36–37}}{{sfn|Todd|2003|pp=61–62}}

His first published works were his three [[piano quartet]]s (1822–1825; [[Piano Quartet No. 1 (Mendelssohn)|Op. 1]] in C minor, [[Piano Quartet No. 2 (Mendelssohn)|Op. 2]] in F minor and [[Piano Quartet No. 3 (Mendelssohn)|Op. 3]] in B minor);{{sfn|Todd|2003|pp=109, 139}} but his capacities are especially revealed in a group of works of his early maturity: the [[Octet (Mendelssohn)|String Octet]] (1825), the Overture ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' (1826), which in its [[A Midsummer Night's Dream (Mendelssohn)#Overture|finished form]] also owes much to the influence of [[Adolf Bernhard Marx]], at the time a close friend of Mendelssohn, and the two early [[string quartet]]s: [[String Quartet No. 1 (Mendelssohn)|Op. 12]] (1829) and [[String Quartet No. 2 (Mendelssohn)|Op. 13]] (1827), which both show a remarkable grasp of the techniques and ideas of [[Late string quartets (Beethoven)|Beethoven's last quartets]] that Mendelssohn had been closely studying.{{sfn|Todd|2003|pp=179–180}} These four works show an intuitive command of form, harmony, [[counterpoint]], colour, and compositional technique, which in the opinion of R. Larry Todd justifies claims frequently made that Mendelssohn's precocity exceeded even that of Mozart in its intellectual grasp.{{sfn|Todd|2003|pp=102–107}}

A 2009 survey by the [[BBC]] of 16 music critics opined that Mendelssohn was the greatest composing prodigy in the history of Western classical music.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/bbcworldwide/worldwidestories/pressreleases/2009/05_may/music_prodigy.shtml |title= Mendelssohn takes top spot as greatest child prodigy of all time. But where's Mozart? |publisher= BBC |date= 13 September 2009 |access-date= 2 February 2019}}</ref>