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Technical Notice
| Classical Composer: | Mendelssohn, Felix |
|---|---|
| Work: | Violin Concerto in E Minor, Op. 64, MWV O14 |
| Year Composed: | 1844 |
| Instrumentation: | vn, 2 2 2 2 - 2 2 0 0, timp, str |
| Publishers: |
Universal Edition Artaria G. Schirmer, Inc. Edwin F. Kalmus Schott Music Bärenreiter Verlag Breitkopf & Härtel Ricordi |
| Duration: | 00:26:00 |
| Period: | Romantic |
| Work Category: | Concerto |
Work Information
Available Recording(s)
Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto, in the words of the great violinist Joachim the dearest of all German violin concertos, the heart's jewel, was written for Ferdinand David, leader of the Leipzig Orchestra, during the late summer of 1844. Its composition discharged a debt of gratitude to the violinist and expressed, too, something of the relief the composer felt at the end of a period that had involved him in the troublesome musical politics of Berlin.
The concerto, the second Mendelssohn had written for the instrument, opens, after two brief bars of orchestral accompaniment, with the entry of the soloist playing the principal theme, which is only then taken up by the full orchestra. There are other structural innovations in the movement, with the placing of the cadenza at the end of the central development section, instead of the end of the movement, and with the use of a sustained bassoon note to link the first movement to the second. The deftly scored slow movement, of masterly economy in means, leads to a brief transitional section, followed by a spirited last movement that offers a fine example of that lightness of touch that Mendelssohn had shown time and again, not least in his famous Overture to Shakespere's A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Writer: Keith Anderson
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