The poet of
Abschied from the early 1830s has not yet been identified; where one can imagine other composers whipping up a musical frenzy from the references to scudding clouds and roaring sea, Mendelssohn subsumes a subtler grief in poignant chromaticism couched within flowing, broken-chordal streams in the piano, the effect one of restrained brooding rather than passion.
from notes by Susan Youens © 2009
