Felix Mendelssohn
Born: February 3, 1809, Hamburg, Germany
Died: November 4, 1847, Leipzig, Germany
Concerto in E Minor for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 64
- Composed: 1838–1844
- Premiere: March 13, 1845, Neils Gade conducting the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Ferdinand David, violin
- CSO Notable Performances:
- First: February 1895, Anton Seidl conducting; Eugène Ysaÿe, violin
- Most Recent: October 2016, Neeme Järvi conducting; Gil Shaham, violin
- Instrumentation: solo violin, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, strings
- Duration: approx. 26 minutes
Mendelssohn was a child prodigy, and one who likely exceeded the achievements of the young Mozart. His youthful masterpieces, such as the Octet for Strings, which he wrote when he was 16, and the Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which he wrote at 17, were longer and more complex than works Mozart composed when he was the same age. These early compositions and the abundance of his beautiful melodies led to Mendelssohn’s great popularity and commercial success. But they also contributed to the myth that Mendelssohn was an endlessly happy composer who wrote quickly and without effort. While this interpretation might be viewed positively, as a sign of his command of the art, some critics saw it as a fault and concluded that his works were too facile. These writers were so influential that, by the end of the 19th century, Mendelssohn’s music was rarely accorded detailed study.
Mendelssohn came from a well-known Jewish family; his grandfather was the famous philosopher Moses Mendelssohn (1729–1786). As antisemitism grew during the 19th century, criticisms of the composer and his music were affected by antisemitic views of his heritage and his family’s wealth. More recent scholars, however, have highlighted the countless technical innovations and subtleties that underpin Mendelssohn’s gorgeous melodies. Scholars, such as the American Larry Todd, have also delved into Mendelssohn’s life, his manuscripts and the remaining letters and diaries of the Mendelssohn family, and have revealed the problems Mendelssohn struggled with as he composed. Indeed, some of his largest works, including his symphonies, took years of writing and intense revising. In some cases, a composition would be premiered, but then Mendelssohn would make further revisions, delaying its publication for years. His complex creative process was further hampered by his extremely busy schedule conducting orchestras on the continent as well as in England. All these factors, his beautiful lyricism, lengthy compositional process and his conducting career had an impact on the creation of his Violin Concerto.
Mendelssohn completed his E Minor Violin Concerto in 1844. It is one of the mature works that he produced at the height of his career, but it is also tragically one of his last. He died three years later, at the age of 38. He had decided on the key of the concerto and conceived parts of its opening violin solo as early as 1838, when Ferdinand David (1810–73), a highly admired violinist, requested he write a concerto. David and Mendelssohn had been friends since they were teenagers, and they worked together when Mendelssohn was the conductor of the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig and David served as the orchestra’s concertmaster. David also appeared as a soloist with the orchestra and performed in other venues and types of concerts. He often played chamber music, and on numerous occasions he played violin sonatas with Mendelssohn accompanying him on the piano. As Mendelssohn worked on the concerto, he turned to the violinist for assistance with the finer points of violin playing. Although he might have worked on the concerto in 1840, he put it aside and, by 1842, was working on a three-movement piano concerto, a work he never completed. Larry Todd has hypothesized that, at some point, Mendelssohn absorbed material from the aborted piano concerto into the violin concerto. Officially, he finished the work for violin by September 1844, but even after that he again sought David’s advice and made changes.
Finally, the work was premiered in Leipzig on March 13, 1845; David played the violin solo and Niels Gade (1817–90), who was assistant conductor of the Gewandhaus Orchestra, conducted because Mendelssohn had fallen ill. Later that year, Mendelssohn conducted the work with David as soloist. The concerto was so well received that it was immediately given performances in other European cities. The American premiere took place a few years later because, at the time, there were few American orchestras and American concert life was just beginning to develop. The concerto was first heard in Boston in 1851 and in New York in 1852. By this time, Mendelssohn was a highly popular composer in America, with frequent performances of the Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream and numerous amateurs playing his piano pieces Songs Without Words.
The concerto has three movements that are played without pause. The first two, the Allegro molto appassionato and the Andante—Allegretto non troppo, are joined by a brief transition initiated by the bassoon. The last movement, the Allegro molto vivace, begins immediately after the soft closing chords of the second movement and provides a short transitional passage that segues into the main part of the rollicking, high-spirited, dance-like finale, which at times recalls the elfin mood of the Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream. (Audiences, including ones in the 19th century, often ruined performances by ignoring Mendelssohn’s intention and applauding between the first and second movements—forcing the orchestra to pause at the end of the first movement lest the audience be unable to hear the soft first measures of the second movement.)
The first movement features two other important innovations. Instead of beginning with an orchestral section that presents the main themes, it begins with a violin solo that is softly accompanied by the orchestra. The violin presents a stunning lyrical first theme that evolves into cascades of dazzling turns and runs. The drama is enhanced when the full orchestra forcefully asserts itself with fortissimo phrases. The second innovation occurs about two-thirds of the way through the movement. Traditionally, composers had left space for the soloist to improvise a virtuosic cadenza just before the end of the movement. But Mendelssohn wrote out a cadenza and placed it just before the recapitulation of the first section. Rather than bringing the music to a full stop, the cadenza is brilliantly integrated into the movement and seamlessly segues into the return of the yearning main theme, which is played by the winds.
David wanted Mendelssohn to create a “brilliant” concerto. Although Mendelosshn initially struggled, in the end he created a concerto in which the solo violin dominates almost every moment. Indeed, the second main theme of the first movement, which is introduced by the winds, and the second theme of the last movement, played by the orchestra, are two of the few ideas that are not introduced by the soloist. Moreover, the brass instruments are used sparingly, mostly appearing in tutti passages such as the rousing fortissimo conclusions to the first and last movements. The overall impression is that, rather than a dialogue with orchestra as we hear in Beethoven’s and Brahms’s violin concertos, Mendelssohn’s soloist dominates the orchestra.
—Heather Platt, Sursa Distinguished Professor of Fine Arts and Professor of Music