By the way did Sarah Hughes skate to D&C?
Many ppl think Mao will be great interpreting French composers e.g Debussy.
Felix Mendelssohn's music is almost always uplifting, rare exception the last string quartet he wrote after the death of his beloved sister Fanny. Most Robert Schumann pieces makes me happy some exceptions e.g cello cto.
Schumann and Mendelssohn were good friends too. Talk about the piano quintet, Robert wrote that to show off Clara's viruosity. They scheduled a private recital among friends, unfortunately Clara was sick, and since Robert injured his hand (permanently?) he was not able to play the piece. Then came Felix to the rescue, he showed up early, took one look at the score and sight read for the performance.
Mendelssohn 8tet is a masterpiece, he composed that at 16. Many musicologists, musicians (including Joshua Bell) think that at 16 Mendelssohn showed more maturity in composition evidence by the octet than Mozart at 16. I think it will be a good piece of music for skating, and definitely Mao will do justice to this masterpiece . Fair Mulsine is just light and lovely. I think no composer can take us in the fantasy world of mermaids, fairies etc like Mendelssohn, and no one wirtes scherzo like Felix.