“ What are all prodigies as compared with him? Felix, a boy of fifteen, is a phenomenon.” We will recall those words of astonishment and admiration that Moscheles wrote in his diary after meeting Mendelssohn for the first time in Berlin in 1824 (see Chapter 1). Moscheles knew from the start that he was in the presence of a “master, not a pupil,” and it was only at the persistent requests of Felix’s mother Lea that Moscheles, with great reluctance, agreed to be Mendelssohn’s teacher. Charlotte tells us that the lessons “are repeated every second day,” and Moscheles’ diary entries from this period indicate that he was immediately aware of a special connection with his young pupil/master, marveling that Mendelssohn “has already played with me my Allegri di Bravura, my concertos, and other things, and how played! The slightest hint from me, and he guesses at my conceptions.”

Additional insights into this first encounter between Moscheles and his young student were offered in a series of articles about Mendelssohn published in The Musical World in 1854, some seven years after his death. Citing a number of diary entries that were never included in Charlotte’s book, we learn that Moscheles’ visits to Mendelssohn “ripened into intimacy,” that Mendelssohn was able to play his “concerto in E major … from the manuscript almost at first sight,” and that he “rendered the Sonata Mélancolique” with equal aplomb.

Thus began one of the unique friendships in the annals of music history. Other musicians have forged strong personal and professional relationships with their fellow artists, but few approach the warmth, intensity, or depth of the friendship between Moscheles and Mendelssohn. They played together as if there were “four hands … but only one soul,” as Felix Moscheles described in his autobiography. Moscheles and Mendelssohn also learned from each other, celebrated birthday and New Year parties together, and provided comfort during times of stress and tragedy, either in person or by a voluminous correspondence. They also helped each other in their professional careers: Moscheles introduced Mendelssohn to England and Mendelssohn reciprocated by inviting Moscheles to become the first professor of piano at the Leipzig Conservatory. They were also linked by their similar heritage— both were of German-Jewish extraction.