Treasures of the Bodleian

In Schilflied Mendelssohn sets to music lines by Nikolaus Lenau. The opening words, translated as ‘On the lake’s unruffled surface rests the moon’s fair beam’, are echoed in a watercolour by the composer, which drapes itself round the first bar of the score. Eventually included in the last set of Lieder Mendelssohn prepared for publication, the illustrated composition is a presentation copy prepared in Frankfurt in March 1845 for Henriette Keyl, the wife of a local wine merchant.

Excerpt from Mendelssohn’s Schilflied performed by Sophie Daneman (soprano) and Eugene Asti (piano). Reproduced by courtesy of Hyperion Records Ltd.