Concerto for Violin and Strings (Mendelssohn)
| Concerto for Violin | |
|---|---|
| by Felix Mendelssohn | |
 |
|
| Key | D minor |
| Catalogue | MWV O 3 |
| Period | Romantic |
| Genre | Concerto |
| Composed | 1823 |
| Movements | 3 |
| Scoring | Violin and orchestra |
| Premiere | |
| Date | 4 February 1952 |
| Location | New York City, New York |
The Concerto for Violin and String Orchestra in D minor was composed by Felix Mendelssohn at the age of thirteen. It has three movements, Allegro–Andante–Allegro, and performance duration is approximately 22 minutes.
Mendelssohn was considered by many of his time to be a prodigy comparable only to the young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Besides being a brilliant piano virtuoso, his composition took a firm step forward in musical development. In the period when this concerto was composed (from 1821 to 1823 while aged 12 to 14) Mendelssohn composed twelve string symphonies. At the age of eleven, he had written a trio for strings, a violin and piano sonata, two piano sonatas and the beginning of a third, three more for four hands, four for organ, three songs (lieder), and a cantata.
Mendelssohn wrote this violin concerto for Eduard Rietz (eldest brother of Julius Rietz), a beloved friend and teacher who later served as concertmaster for Mendelssohn's legendary performance of Johann Sebastian Bach's St Matthew Passion, which has been thought to have resurrected Bach in the public image.
When Mendelssohn died, his widow gave the manuscript of the long forgotten concerto to Ferdinand David, another close friend of Mendelssohn's and a leading violinist of the period, who in fact had premiered his Violin Concerto in E minor.
Yehudi Menuhin, the violin virtuoso and former prodigy himself, was first shown the manuscript of the concerto in the spring of 1951 in London by Albi Rosenthal, an amateur violinist and rare books dealer who had heard Menuhin in his first concert in Munich.
He instantly found an interest in the concerto and bought the rights to it from members of the Mendelssohn family residing in Switzerland, which he held for the rest of his life. This was not the first time he resurrected a concerto, for as a teenager he had premiered the "lost" Robert Schumann Violin Concerto in the USA. Menuhin edited the concerto for performance and had it published by Peters Edition.
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