Violin Concerto in E Minor, Op. 64
Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
THE STORY
Many works in the history of classical music have arisen
from close partnerships between composers and
performers. At the height of his career, 29-year-old Felix
Mendelssohn wrote in the summer of 1838 to the virtuoso violinist Ferdinand David, a close friend and the brilliant young concertmaster of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra: “I should like to write a violin concerto for you next winter. One in E minor runs through my head, the beginning of which gives me no peace.” Seven years would elapse before the work premiered in Leipzig with David, the dedicatee, as soloist.
Declared “the heart’s jewel” among the four greats of German violin concertos (Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Brahms, and Bruch), Mendelssohn’s concerto both delights the ear with hauntingly beautiful melodies and thwarts convention. A concerto’s opening bars were typically reserved for the orchestra to introduce the work’s main themes; here, Mendelssohn breaks tradition by allowing the soloist to have the first word against muted strings. Concertos also usually featured pauses between movements—but Mendelssohn weaves them together, seamlessly moving from one to the next.
Collaboration with David is preeminent in the cadenza, the precise location where the soloist typically dazzles audiences with a virtuosic improvisation. Here, Mendelssohn writes out the cadenza (with David’s suggestions) and positions the solo interlude before the recapitulation rather than after. The change allowed audiences to marvel at the brilliance of the soloist before once again returning to the familiar lyricism of the main theme.
LISTEN FOR
INSTRUMENTATION
Solo violin; two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani, strings