PASC052: Concerto in D minor for Violin and Strings - Mendelssohn
German

Buy MP3

FLAC lossless download

MP3
price

Price Code

Yehudi Menuhin, violin
Philharmonia Orchestra
Conducted by Sir Adrian Boult


Recorded in 1953, released as HMV ALP 1085
Download ID: 223708
(Duration 23'32")

 

 

PASC052: Concerto in D minor for Violin and Strings - Mendelssohn

Play sample movement:


Introduction: Felix Mendelssohn was born in Hamburg, Germany on 3rd February, 1809 into a distinguished and afflluent family of bankers, intellectuals and artists. A child prodigy, he produced his first composition in 1820; a constant stream of work continued throughout his relatively short life - he died in Leipzig on 4th November, 1847 at the age of just 38. These notes, which accompany Pristine Audio's Mendelssohn Edition, released to mark the 160th anniversary of his oratio Elijah, our first award-winning release for Divine Art, follow Mendelssohn's life through eight compositions newly remastered for August 2006.


The Mendelssohn Trail - Part 1 of 8
Music written in 1822 at age 14

"The Newly Discovered Mendelssohn Concerto"

It was in London last May 1951 where, through the kind offices of my friend, the distinguished dealer in antique books and manuscripts, Mr. A. Rosenthal of Oxford, I was introduced to a manuscript bearing the title "Concerto" and inscribed with the following words by Ferdinand David in German: "Received as a gift from Frau Cecile Mendelssohn Bartholdy on May 24, 1853." ... He was just short of fourteen years of age when he captured these impulsive and lyrical melodies which were to remain unheard for over a century... The work was written for [his] great friend of his youthful years, his violin teacher E. Rietz.
- Yehudi Menuhin, 1952

Thus our musical tale begins - with a lost score for an early piece, and here, its premiere recording newly remastered by Peter Harrison. Musically it shows the huge promise Mendelssohn showed as a youth. The outer movements both show the clear influence of Mozart and Haydn in style and form, though Mendelssohn does play with the traditional structure of the recapitulation of the first movement, with no pause for a candenza and the two themes reappearing in reverse order.

However it is in the middle movement, the Adagio non troppo available here to download in full by clicking on the Play button, that we start to hear the voice of Mendelssohn's lyrical mature style for perhaps the first time.

By this early stage in his life his compositional talents were already being recognised by his teacher, Zelter, who the previous year had introduced him to the poet Goethe, beginning a friendship which was to last for many years and greatly affect the composer. A second visit followed in 1822, the year of this compositions; a year later Zelter wrote to Goethe: "In everything he gains, an even force and power are now hardly wanting; everything comes from within him, and the external things of the day only affect him externally. Imagine my joy, if we survive, to see the boy living in the fulfilment of all that his childhood gives promise of."

 

The Mendelssohn Trail - on to part 2


Find out more:

 

2nd movement
Adagio non troppo

s
About Mendelssohn:

BBC Artist Profile
FelixMendelssohn.com
Classical Music Pages

CD covers to print:
(NB. Disable Page Scaling before printing)

Download pdf CD cover

CD-writing cuesheet (save as .cue):
(Use this to split MP3 files - see here)

Cue sheet

Download our Full Discography
Printable text listings of all Pristine Audio historic releases
Restoration by Peter Harrisson:


 

 

Google
 
Web Pristine Classical

 

 

Pristine Classical - DRM-free historic FLAC and MP3 downloads since 2005