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Variations concertantes in D major for Cello and Piano, Op. 17
Felix Mendelssohn
  • Born February 3, 1809, in Hamburg
  • Died November 4, 1847, in Leipzig
  • Composed in 1829
  • First CMS performance on November 17, 2022, by cellist Sihao He and pianist Michael Stephen Brown
  • Duration: 10 minutes

Felix Mendelssohn spent his late teens and twenties consumed with the legacy of Ludwig van Beethoven. His first two string quartets, those in A major (Op. 13, 1827) and E-flat major (Op. 12, 1829), were written in response to Beethoven’s death and were deliberately modeled on the late quartets of the Viennese master. But even smaller-scale works that Mendelssohn wrote at this time tipped the hat to Ludwig.

In early 1829, Felix completed a set of Variations in D major for Cello and Piano (Op. 17), described as music for piano with cello accompaniment. He wrote the piece for his brother Paul, a skilled amateur cellist who went on to work in banking. The instrumental arrangement brings to mind three variation sets for piano and cello that Beethoven wrote in the late 1790s—pieces that were likely produced more for functional than for deep, artistic purposes, and which are successful but not particularly adventurous fare. Mendelssohn’s Variations concertantes pays homage to these early explorations of the cello’s capacities, but also displays knowledge of the freedoms Beethoven would take with variation form later in his life.

In a variation set, a composer repeats a theme—a fixed melodic and harmonic structure—in various textural and rhythmic guises. In Mendelssohn’s Op. 17, each phrase of the appealing Andante theme is first played by the piano, and then by the cello, an order that emphasizes the instrumental hierarchy of the piece. In the initial variations, Mendelssohn speeds up the rhythmic values of the notes, following standard procedure for 18th-century variation sets like those of W. A. Mozart, Joseph Haydn, and the young Beethoven. Variation 1 features bouncing staccato notes from the piano; Variation 2 flowing sextuplets; and Variation 3 a number of quick 32nd-note runs for the cello that makes one wonder if Paul must have been a pretty good player.

From the fourth variation, Mendelssohn begins to develop and depart from the structure of the theme. He repeats one half but not the other; he swaps in new harmonies; he repeats little gestures or deletes measures and sections as he wishes. The sixth variation, a sweet tranquillo, alludes to a texture from the heart-breaking middle movement of Beethoven’s Fifth Cello Sonata, while the seventh variation, in the minor mode, features highly unpredictable phrase lengths and devolves into cadenza passages for both instruments. The virtuosic closing coda is set off by a particularly effective moment where the cello’s figuration gets faster and faster—a condensation of the gradual rhythmic acceleration we heard in the first few variations of the work. At last, the piece ends in a state of repose—a simple finish found in many Classical variation sets, signaling that the potential of a particular melodic and harmonic idea has been happily extinguished.

Variations concertantes in D major for Cello and Piano, Op. 17
Felix Mendelssohn
  • Born February 3, 1809, in Hamburg
  • Died November 4, 1847, in Leipzig
  • Composed in 1829
  • First CMS performance on November 17, 2022, by cellist Sihao He and pianist Michael Stephen Brown
  • Duration: 10 minutes

Felix Mendelssohn spent his late teens and twenties consumed with the legacy of Ludwig van Beethoven. His first two string quartets, those in A major (Op. 13, 1827) and E-flat major (Op. 12, 1829), were written in response to Beethoven’s death and were deliberately modeled on the late quartets of the Viennese master. But even smaller-scale works that Mendelssohn wrote at this time tipped the hat to Ludwig.

In early 1829, Felix completed a set of Variations in D major for Cello and Piano (Op. 17), described as music for piano with cello accompaniment. He wrote the piece for his brother Paul, a skilled amateur cellist who went on to work in banking. The instrumental arrangement brings to mind three variation sets for piano and cello that Beethoven wrote in the late 1790s—pieces that were likely produced more for functional than for deep, artistic purposes, and which are successful but not particularly adventurous fare. Mendelssohn’s Variations concertantes pays homage to these early explorations of the cello’s capacities, but also displays knowledge of the freedoms Beethoven would take with variation form later in his life.

In a variation set, a composer repeats a theme—a fixed melodic and harmonic structure—in various textural and rhythmic guises. In Mendelssohn’s Op. 17, each phrase of the appealing Andante theme is first played by the piano, and then by the cello, an order that emphasizes the instrumental hierarchy of the piece. In the initial variations, Mendelssohn speeds up the rhythmic values of the notes, following standard procedure for 18th-century variation sets like those of W. A. Mozart, Joseph Haydn, and the young Beethoven. Variation 1 features bouncing staccato notes from the piano; Variation 2 flowing sextuplets; and Variation 3 a number of quick 32nd-note runs for the cello that makes one wonder if Paul must have been a pretty good player.

From the fourth variation, Mendelssohn begins to develop and depart from the structure of the theme. He repeats one half but not the other; he swaps in new harmonies; he repeats little gestures or deletes measures and sections as he wishes. The sixth variation, a sweet tranquillo, alludes to a texture from the heart-breaking middle movement of Beethoven’s Fifth Cello Sonata, while the seventh variation, in the minor mode, features highly unpredictable phrase lengths and devolves into cadenza passages for both instruments. The virtuosic closing coda is set off by a particularly effective moment where the cello’s figuration gets faster and faster—a condensation of the gradual rhythmic acceleration we heard in the first few variations of the work. At last, the piece ends in a state of repose—a simple finish found in many Classical variation sets, signaling that the potential of a particular melodic and harmonic idea has been happily extinguished.