 Charles Rosen in a chapter on Mendelssohn in his 1995 book The Romantic Generation both praises and criticizes the composer , calling him a " genius " with a " profound " comprehension of Beethoven and " the greatest child prodigy the history of Western music has ever known " . Although Rosen feels that in his later years , without losing his craft or genius , the composer " renounced ... his daring " , he calls Mendelssohn 's relatively late Violin Concerto in E minor " the most successful synthesis of the Classical concerto tradition and the Romantic virtuoso form " . Rosen calls the Fugue in E minor ( later included in Mendelssohn 's Op. 35 for piano ) a " masterpiece " ; but in the same paragraph calls Mendelssohn " the inventor of religious kitsch in music " . 
