Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64, MWV O 14, is his last concerto. It was well received at its premiere and has remained as one of the most prominent and highly regarded violin concertos in history. It holds a central place in violin repertoire and has developed a reputation as an essential concerto for all aspiring concert violinists to master. A typical performance lasts just under half an hour.

Mendelssohn originally proposed the idea of the violin concerto to Ferdinand David, a close friend and concertmaster of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Although conceived in 1838, the work took another six years to complete and was not premiered until 1845. During this time, Mendelssohn maintained a regular correspondence with David as he gave him many suggestions throughout the creation process. The work itself was one of the foremost violin concertos of the Romantic era and was influential on many other composers.

Although the concerto consists of three movements in a standard fast–slow–fast structure that follow a traditional form, it was innovative and included many novel features for its time. Distinctive aspects include the almost immediate entrance of the violin at the beginning of the work and the through-composed form of the concerto as a whole, in which the three movements are melodically and harmonically connected and played attacca.

Many violinists have recorded this concerto and it is performed in concerts and classical music competitions. It was recorded by Nathan Milstein and the New York Philharmonic as an album and released as the first LP record upon the format's introduction in 1948.

History

thumb|upright|Ferdinand David, the violinist who premiered the piece and whose collaboration was essential for the concerto's birth

Following his appointment in 1835 as principal conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Mendelssohn named his childhood friend Ferdinand David as the orchestra's concertmaster. The work's origins derive from this professional collaboration. In a letter dated 30 July 1838, Mendelssohn wrote to David:

The concerto took another six years to complete. and an unhappy period in Berlin after a request from King Frederick William IV of Prussia. Nevertheless, Mendelssohn and David kept up a regular correspondence during this time, This violin concerto was the first of many to have been composed with the input of a professional violinist, and this choice would influence many future collaborations between violinists and composers. Mendelssohn first conducted the concerto on 23 October 1845 again with Ferdinand David as soloist.

Instrumentation

The concerto is scored for solo violin and a standard orchestra of its period, consisting of two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets in A, two bassoons, two natural horns, two natural trumpets, timpani, and strings. There is then a frenetic chromatic transition passage as the music subsides and modulates into a tranquil second subject theme in G major. The melody is initially played by the woodwinds with the soloist providing a pedal note on an open G string. The tune is played by the solo violin itself before a short codetta ends the exposition section of the opening movement.

The opening two themes are then combined in the development section, where the music builds up to the innovative cadenza, which Mendelssohn wrote out in full rather than allowing the soloist to improvise. This serves as a link to the recapitulation, where the opening melody is played by the orchestra, accompanied by the continuing ricochet arpeggios by the soloist. During the recapitulation, the opening themes are repeated with the second theme being played in the E major before returning to E minor for the closing of the movement. The music gathers speed into the coda that is marked as "Presto", This serves as a key change from the fast-paced, intense E minor opening movement into the lyrical C major slow movement. The movement is in ternary form and is reminiscent of Mendelssohn's own Songs Without Words. This movement is in sonata rondo form with an opening theme requiring fast passage work from the soloist. The opening exposition leads into a brief second B major In a typical Classical concerto, the cadenza is improvised by the performing soloist and is located at the end of a movement after the recapitulation while also just before the final coda. Mendelssohn's written cadenza was not included in the first published version of the concerto, but instead found in a "streamlined" version by Ferdinand David without the contrapuntal complexity of the original. This is the most played version today, although some artists, e.g. Arabella Steinbacher and Chouchane Siranossian, chose to play Mendelssohn's original.

This violin concerto stands out from previous concertos with its connected movements. The linking was designed to eliminate applause between movements. This would have come as a surprise to Mendelssohn's audience as they were used to applauding between movements.

For example, the unusual placement of the cadenza before the recapitulation is reflected in the violin concerto of Tchaikovsky where the cadenza is similarly placed and in the violin concerto of Sibelius where the cadenza serves to extend the development section. Moreover, following this concerto it was rare for a composer to leave a cadenza unwritten for the soloist to improvise such as in the classical works of Mozart and Beethoven. The linking of the three movements also influenced other concertos, such as Liszt's Second Piano Concerto.

The concerto itself was an instant success as it was warmly received at its premiere and well received by contemporary critics. By the end of the nineteenth century, the piece was already considered one of the greatest violin concertos in the repertoire. It would become one of Mendelssohn's most popular pieces, and was still regularly performed even when interest in his music declined in the early twentieth century. In 1906, the year before his death, the celebrated violinist Joseph Joachim told the guests at his 75th birthday party: This has led to its becoming virtually ubiquitous in the discography of concert violinists. Today, the violin concerto remains technically challenging and is generally considered to be as difficult as many other famous counterparts.

References

Bibliography

  • BBC Discovering Music (browse for .ram file containing discussion of this work)
  • ABC Classic FM Deep Listen guide based on a recording by the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra with Niki Vasilakis.