XVII Introduction Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy’s Violin Concerto in E minor ter season 1838/1839 1. The revision of the work dated 15 June op . 64 MWV O 14 is his final and, at the same time, most 1838 led to no conclusive results . Fragments of the revision important contribution to the genre of the concerto for solo reveal the composer’s efforts to cast the first movement into a instrument and orchestra . The work has been transmitted in technically brilliant, high-gloss work of the type expected from two versions; the present volume documents the early version, virtuoso performers back then . as it had been notated in the autograph score; it includes all the A letter of 30 July 1838 affirms that Mendelssohn was consid- emendations and bears the closing date 16 September 1844 . ering the possibility of writing a violin concerto for David at Moreover, a number of diplomatic transcriptions of all surviv- that time as well, and that there was a plan to perform the work ing sketches and drafts of the work have also been reproduced as early as the 1838/39 concert season: “I would also like to here . The main version, which the composer approved for pub- write a violin concerto for you for next winter; there is one in E lication in 1845, is printed in Series II, Volume 7 of this edition, minor, whose beginning I cannot get out of my head ”. 2 David where the circumstances of the printing and early reception will welcomed his friend’s plan and told him on 3 August 1838: be examined in detail . “But if you write a violin concerto in E minor (which obviously awakens the gentle hope of a certain amount of E major within The Work: Inspiration and Inception me), then you would be the most divine of men, and I promise you to rehearse it so often that even the angels in heaven will Up until the publication of his Violin Concerto in 1845, Men- be delighted ”. 3 The concerto proposed by Mendelssohn was not delssohn had written chiefly concertante works for piano . A few only intended as a sign of the composer’s exceptional appreci- chamber-music essays and practice pieces from the early 1820s, ation for David; it also meant a highly welcome occasion for as well as the Sonata op . 4 MWV Q 12, were conceived for the violinist to expand his repertoire . Like the majority of the the violin as solo instrument, but only two concerto-like pieces virtuosos of his day, David mostly wrote the works that he per- from Mendelssohn’s earliest youth were created with this instru- formed as a soloist himself, thus giving free rein to the unique, ment in mind: the Concerto in D minor for violin and string idiosyncratic style of writing that lets his talent shine and his orchestra MWV O 3 of 1822, and the Double Concerto, also playing dazzle . Sprinkled with a profusion of double stops, his in the same key, for violin, piano and orchestra MWV O 4 of Violin Concerto no . 1 in E minor op . 10 from the year 1839, 1823; neither, however, was published during the composer’s bears exuberant testimony to this . The mere insistence on vir- lifetime . Mendelssohn wrote all of these early works against the tuosity did not satisfy David very long, however, and he soon background of his very close friendship with the outstanding began to look for new and musically more challenging works violinist Eduard Ritz (1802–1832); a few of them were written again . Upon the return from his first concert tour to England in specifically for Ritz and dedicated to him as well . After Ritz’ June 1839, this problem had become more virulent than ever, early demise, the violin temporarily lost some of its signifi- especially since Mendelssohn did not step up his efforts to com- cance in the composer’s oeuvre . Mendelssohn’s renewed inter- plete the concerto, as had been the original plan . est in a serious approach to the form and function of a violin Thus on 16 July 1839, almost exactly one year after he had heard concerto was the result of a request made by another violinist: about Mendelssohn’s composition plans for the first time, David Ferdinand David (1810 –1873), with whom Mendelssohn had finally demanded results: “I am leading a very lonely existence been friends since his youth in Berlin, and whom he had helped here and composing concertos and variations in my despair, but obtain the post of concertmaster at the Leipzig Gewandhaus I am still making very little progress . It is difficult for me to Orchestra in February 1836 . David became a renewed source produce an adequate concerto form; I don’t want to write one of inspiration for the composer and an influential adviser who in three movements (perhaps because I can’t) and as to those in played a considerable role in the inception of further works for one movement, the form of the opening section does not satisfy the violin . Mendelssohn began by writing a large violin sonata me . Like so many other things, you understand this, too, and with piano accompaniment in F major (MWV Q 26) for his have proven it in the two concertos (of which, incidentally, I am friend, which he was intending to play with him in the win- increasingly growing fond of Number 2) . But face it, no one can 1 “I’ve finished the Violin Sonata, and I think that we shall be playing it together every now and then this coming winter […] ”. Letter to Ferdinand David of 15 June 1838, Stadtgeschichtliches Museum Leipzig (hereafter: D-LEsm), A/606/2007, printed in: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. Briefe aus Leipziger Archiven, ed . by Hans-Joachim Rothe and Reinhard Szeskus, Leipzig, 1972, pp . 140–141, quotation on p . 141 . 2 Letter to Ferdinand David of 30 July 1838, D-LEsm, A/607/2007, printed in: Ferdinand David und die Familie Mendelssohn-Bartholdy . Aus hinter- lassenen Briefschaften zusammengestellt von (Compiled from estate papers and correspondence by) Julius Eckardt, Leipzig, 1888 (hereafter: Eckardt), pp . 93–96, quotation on p . 94 . 3 Letter from Ferdinand David to Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy of 3 August 1838, Bodleian Library, University of Oxford (hereafter: GB-Ob), MS. M. Deneke Mendelssohn d. 34, Green Books VIII-27, printed in: Eckardt [note 2], pp . 96–97, quotation on p . 97 . XVIII do this better than you.4 I long to play something new by Some- have played to him – so vibrantly in his mind that he was able one Else again, but it is a true shame how rarely a decent piece to quote it in a later letter to Mendelssohn: comes along. Have pity on me, at least, and write a concerto . œ œ œ . 8 for the violin; you have shown what pianists, orchestras, choirs, “What has become of # # . ºœ œ œ. œ œ. ºœ œ œ œ &c. &c. ?” G # # œ clarinets and basset horns mean to you. So do something for us [ ] now, especially for me; you are the right man for this. It costs Another, much later inquiry by Ferdinand David, in which he you two weeks’ time and you reap eternal gratitude. But do it jokingly designated the concerto that had been promised for so quickly before my fingers become all stiff and the jumping bow many years now as antediluvian (thus before the Biblical Flood), gets podagra.”5 Mendelssohn’s reply makes it clear that he had repeats this quotation of the principal theme of the finale in a not worked on the piece anymore in the meantime, and he even slightly varied manner.9 It supports the view that Mendelssohn provides a reason for this: “It is very kind of you to want to note had begun his work starting from the final movement and that me down for a violin concerto; I would really love to write one he definitely had more trouble with the expression marks for the for you, and if I am able to enjoy a few tranquil days here, then opening movement such as “brilliant” and “The entire first Solo I shall write you such a piece. The task is not that simple, how- […] from the high e […].”10 It was not until 21 July 1840 that ever; you want a brilliant piece, but how do we proceed here? Mendels sohn was finally able to communicate to Chorley: “I am The entire first Solo is to consist of the high e.”6 The mention now finishing the concerto […], of which you recollected the last of the high note “e” which was to become so characteristic for movement so perfectly.”11 This formulation, in turn, does not yet the main theme of the first movement, suggests that a roughly hint about an actual full draft of the concerto, since Mendels- formulated theme already existed. The difficulties concerning sohn usually elaborated his works almost entirely in his mind and a virtuoso execution designated as “brilliant” refer in multiple stored them before notating down the score on music paper.12 ways to the unfinished Sonata in F major MWV Q 26. This common practice can be observed here, too, for it grew still around the Violin Concerto. Four years were to elapse before The Composition Continues Mendelssohn reprised his work on it again. Previously, in May 1843, with a caustic pen and sharp humor, and written in a letter Thanks to his friend’s insistence, Mendelssohn began to work penned in the polite “Sie” form, David jestingly asked about the intensively on the Violin Concerto in the second half of 1839.