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====Early maturity==== [[File:Octetp1.jpg|thumb|alt=|First page of the [[manuscript]] of Mendelssohn's Octet (1825) (now in the US [[Library of Congress]])]] Mendelssohn probably made his first public concert appearance at the age of nine, when he participated in a [[chamber music]] concert accompanying a [[French horn|horn]] duo.{{sfn|Todd|2003|p=36}} He was a prolific composer from an early age. As an adolescent, his works were often performed at home with a private orchestra for the associates of his wealthy parents amongst the intellectual elite of Berlin.{{sfn|Mercer-Taylor|2000|p=36}} Between the ages of 12 and 14, Mendelssohn wrote 13 [[String symphonies (Mendelssohn)|string symphonies]] for such concerts, and a number of chamber works.{{sfn|Mercer-Taylor|2000|pp=35β36}} His first work, a piano quartet, was published when he was 13. It was probably Abraham Mendelssohn who procured the publication of this quartet by the house of [[Adolf Martin Schlesinger|Schlesinger]].{{sfn|Conway|2012|p=242}} In 1824 the 15-year-old wrote his [[Symphony No. 1 (Mendelssohn)|first symphony]] for full orchestra (in C minor, Op. 11).{{sfn|Brown|2003|p=80}} At age 16 Mendelssohn wrote his [[Octet (Mendelssohn)|String Octet in E-flat major]], a work which has been regarded as "mark[ing] the beginning of his maturity as a composer."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.kennedy-center.org/calendar/index.cfm?fuseaction=composition&composition_id=3182 |title=Kennedy Center notes |publisher=Kennedy-center.org |date=17 February 2011 |access-date=17 December 2017 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130616065112/http://www.kennedy-center.org/calendar/index.cfm?fuseaction=composition&composition_id=3182 |archive-date=16 June 2013 }}</ref> This Octet and his [[A Midsummer Night's Dream (Mendelssohn)#Overture|Overture]] to [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]]'s ''[[A Midsummer Night's Dream]]'', which he wrote a year later in 1826, are the best-known of his early works. (Later, in 1843, he also wrote [[incidental music]] for the play, including the famous "[[Wedding March (Mendelssohn)|Wedding March]]".) The Overture is perhaps the earliest example of a [[concert overture]] β that is, a piece not written deliberately to accompany a staged performance but to evoke a literary theme in performance on a concert platform; this was a genre which became a popular form in [[Romantic music|musical Romanticism]].{{sfn|Temperley|2008|loc=Β§3}} In 1824 Mendelssohn studied under the composer and piano virtuoso [[Ignaz Moscheles]], who confessed in his diaries{{sfn|Moscheles|1873|p=65}} that he had little to teach him. Moscheles and Mendelssohn became close colleagues and lifelong friends. The year 1827 saw the premiere β and sole performance in his lifetime β of Mendelssohn's opera ''[[Die Hochzeit des Camacho]]''. The failure of this production left him disinclined to venture into the genre again.{{sfn|Todd|2003|pp=167β168}} Besides music, Mendelssohn's education included art, literature, languages, and philosophy. He had a particular interest in [[classical literature]]{{sfn|Todd|2003|pp=70β71}} and translated [[Terence]]'s ''[[Andria (comedy)|Andria]]'' for his tutor Heyse in 1825; Heyse was impressed and had it published in 1826 as a work of "his pupil, F****" [i.e. "Felix" (asterisks as provided in original text)].{{sfn|Todd|2003|p=154}}{{refn|The translation was reprinted by [[Giovanni Mardersteig]] at the [[Officina Bodoni]] in 1971.{{sfn|Barr|1978|p=84}}|group=n}} This translation also qualified Mendelssohn to study at the [[Humboldt University of Berlin|University of Berlin]], where from 1826 to 1829 he attended lectures on aesthetics by [[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel]], on history by [[Eduard Gans]], and on geography by [[Carl Ritter]].{{sfn|Todd|2003|pp=171β172}}
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