Felix Mendelssohn Popular Songs Ranking [2026]

String Quintet No. 2 in B-flat major, Op. 87Felix Mendelssohn64rank/position

Mendelssohn: String Quintet Op 87 B flat major (1845) Simonen,Bowman,Camille,Dann,Karttunen

Mendelssohn composed his String Quintet No.

1 in 1826—he was 17 at the time.

String Quintet No.

2 dates from 1845, when he was 36.

Thirty-six might seem young, but since Mendelssohn died at 38, the Second Quintet counts as a work from his final years.

Interestingly, the Second, written when he was older than for the First, feels more vibrant and youthful, brimming with energy.

Here, I’ve chosen the Second Quintet: a live performance from the 15th International Chamber Music Festival in 2013, performed by Sini Simonen, Benjamin Bowman, Michel Camille, Steven Dann, and Anssi Karttunen.

The performance lasts 30 minutes.

String Octet in E-flat major, Op. 20Felix Mendelssohn65rank/position

Prazak Quartet & Zemlinsky Quartet : Felix Mendelssohn String octet E-flat major Op. 20

“The piano that this boy improvises at first sight is nothing short of a miracle!” Mendelssohn, whom Goethe called a child prodigy, was a precocious genius.

He made his debut as a composer at nine, wrote a string quartet at twelve, and completed his Symphony No.

1 at fifteen.

The present work dates from when he was sixteen, already exhibiting refinement and a fully formed beauty.

Composed as a birthday gift for a friend, it reflects the worldview of Mendelssohn as he was growing from boyhood into youth.

It consists of four movements and is scored for four violins, two violas, and two cellos, though it is now also performed by orchestras as a string ensemble.

The performance time is about 35 minutes.

Please give it a listen.

String Quartet No. 4 in E minor, Op. 44 No. 2Felix Mendelssohn66rank/position

Arcadia Quartet plays Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy – String Quartet Op. 44 No. 2 in E minor

After writing his String Quartet No.

1 in 1829, Mendelssohn stepped away from composing string quartets for a time.

During that period he produced masterpieces such as the Symphony No.

4 “Italian” and the overture “The Hebrides” (“Fingal’s Cave”), and he also took up the post of conductor for the Leipzig Gewandhaus concerts, pursuing a wide range of activities.

He returned to the string quartet in 1837, eight years after the First Quartet.

This led to a set of three quartets that could be called “Mendelssohn’s Razumovsky.” “Razumovsky” refers to Beethoven’s quartets.

This work is regarded not only as quintessentially Mendelssohnian but as one of the finest achievements in Europe at the time.

In the same key as his famous Violin Concerto in E minor, it is filled with beauty, poignancy, and lyricism—meditative, yet culminating in an energetic finale.

The performance time is about 27 minutes, noted in connection with the Chamber International Competition and Festival held in Osaka.

String Quartet No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 44 No. 3Felix Mendelssohn67rank/position

Veridian String Quartet: Mendelssohn Op. 44 No. 3

Right after completing his String Quartet No.

4, Mendelssohn, riding a wave of momentum, began composing his String Quartet No.

5, which he finished the following year, 1838.

In this work, Mendelssohn pushes even further the path of honoring classical forms that he pursued in No.

4.

While it shows the influence of Beethoven’s “Rasumovsky” quartets, it retains Mendelssohn’s characteristic graceful melodies and vibrant rhythms, resulting in a piece that conveys brightness and vivacity.

Among Mendelssohn’s series of string quartets, it may appear the most modest at first glance, but it reveals deeper rewards the more one listens.

Mendelssohn was extremely satisfied with this work and is said to have remarked that it was “hundreds of times better” than the quartets he had written up to that point.

Approximately 35 minutes in the Viridian String Quartet’s performance.

Greeting from Six Songs, Op. 19-aFelix Mendelssohn68rank/position

Mendelssohn: Gruß – Elisabeth Kulman

A pleasant resonance that has slipped from my heart spreads quietly.

O resonance, go far, far away—resound all the way to the house where she blooms like a flower.

And if you should meet a single rose, tell it this: it is a greeting from me.

This is a poem with such words.

It is a simple and elegant piece set to a short, romantic poem by Heinrich Heine.

Mezzo-soprano: Elisabeth Kulman; pianist: Walter Moore.

Elisabeth Kulman is an Austrian singer.

She excels in Wagner and Liszt, and also performs Beethoven’s Ninth and the Missa solemnis.

Walter Moore is a pianist who moved from the United States to Austria.

On Wings of SongFelix Mendelssohn69rank/position

Mendelssohn: On Wings of Song [Naxos Classical Curation #Fantasy]

On Wings of Song is an art song composed by Felix Mendelssohn, a composer of the German Romantic era, set to a poem by Christian Johann Heinrich Heine, the German poet famous for Lorelei.

Owing to the beauty of its melody, it is now also performed as violin and piano pieces.

Songs Without Words “Spring Song”Felix Mendelssohn70rank/position

Mendelssohn: Songs Without Words “Spring Song” / Yuki Kondo

Mendelssohn was a prodigy so precocious that he was called the Mozart of the 19th century.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is famous, and he wrote many works that seem to transpose landscapes into music.

Songs Without Words is by far the most famous collection among his piano pieces.