Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) ARTIST NOTE Jewish roots. In addition to the great artists and Violin Concerto in D minor thinkers of the time that would frequent his family As I was first becoming acquainted with these home, the Mendelssohn family’s Jewish heritage CONCERTO FOR VIOLIN, PIANO AND two early Mendelssohn concerti, I was captivated clearly remained with them. STRING ORCHESTRA IN D MINOR by the youthful spirit which seems to bound off the page. Written only the following year, the Concerto for Violin, Piano and String Orchestra in D The D minor Concerto for Violin is the earlier of minor brings us a much more mature musician. Violin Concerto in D minor the two, and evidently so – the almost childlike His grasp of form is impressive, showcased in 1 Allegro molto [9.12] innocence of the emotional content is constantly each movement, but in particular the colossal 2 Andante [7.41] charming. As I was playing it, I was struck by first movement. Here, his teenage exuberance the contrast between the heavily Baroque is in full swing. Brilliantly virtuosic, tender, 3 Allegro [5.16] influenced orchestral exposition and the violin’s playful, and restless, he could hardly have much more improvisatory line. Time and again, packed more in. Everything is on a grand scale Concerto for Violin, Piano and String Orchestra in D minor the operatic quality of the writing grabbed my yet what fun it is to play! After the attention; here like a coloratura, there a recitativo, engaging orchestral exposition, it is a wonderful 4 Allegro [18.55] and always with the natural and breathing lines release when the piano and violin finally 5 Adagio [9.00] we associate with Mendelssohn. The playful begin in a whirl of notes. Again, some of the passages in the outer movements tell of the recitativo passages are remarkable in their bold 6 Allegro molto [9.41] brilliant virtuosity which will flow from his pen romanticism and freedom of expression. The in so many of his later works, including the noble, simple and beautiful second movement Total timings: [59.42] Double Concerto on this disc. The similarities is masterful, and the last is dazzling in its between the slow movement of the D minor cascades of sound – chasing, arguing, teasing, Concerto played here and the famous E minor flirting, and dancing, always fleet of foot. concerto are remarkable. Indeed, both are really TAMSIN WALEY-COHEN VIOLIN Songs Without Words; simple Gondolier’s songs, Both are a joy to play, for their beauty and HUW WATKINS PIANO gently lilting, without pretension. The Klezmer-like brilliance, and bringing us back to the teenage ORCHESTRA OF THE SWAN DAVID CURTIS CONDUCTOR dancing last movement seemed to come to life world of endless exploration and possibility. during our rehearsals, telling of Mendelssohn’s © 2013 Tamsin Waley-Cohen www.signumrecords.com - 3 - Mendelssohn: Two Early Concertos Night’s Dream. From his earliest years he seemed As grandson of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn of his String Symphonies and an opera, The to have a natural affinity for string instruments, and son of the banker Abraham Mendelssohn, Two Nephews. ‘Mendelssohn … is the Mozart of the 19th as is well illustrated by the twelve-and-a-bit whose wife also belonged to a prominent Jewish century; the most brilliant among musicians, Sinfonias for string orchestra he wrote between family, Mendelssohn and his siblings were raised The Concerto in D minor for violin and string the one who has most clearly recognized the the ages of 12 and 14 (student works half-way in an extraordinarily cultured background and orchestra dates from 1822: that is, 22 years contradictions of the time, and the first to between Baroque symphonies and string quartets were given the best possible education. When before Mendelssohn’s ‘other’ and much more reconcile them’. This was the verdict of Robert writ large) and the aforementioned String Octet, the family relocated from Hamburg to Berlin in famous Violin Concerto in E minor. The piece Schumann, greeting the publication of Felix written at age 16, essentially conceived as a 1811, for fear of Napoleon, their house became has a curious history. After Mendelssohn’s death Mendelssohn’s D minor Piano Trio in 1840. The symphony-like double string quartet. an intellectual and artistic salon frequented in 1847, his widow gave the manuscript to the comparison with Mozart was already almost a by leading artists, scientists and musicians. It renowned violinist-composer Ferdinand David, a commonplace, partly because of Mendelssohn’s More than 160 years after his death, has been said that ‘Europe came to their living close friend of Mendelssohn who had premiered sure instinct for classically-balanced form, Mendelssohn’s position as a crucial link between room’. In addition to such luminaries as Hegel, the E minor concerto; but David apparently and partly for the seeming youthfulness of his the Classical style of Mozart and Beethoven Heine, von Humboldt and the mathematician did nothing with it, and the score returned to inspiration. Both composers, of course, had and the high Romantic style of Schumann and Dirichlet, Mendelssohn studied with Zelter, one the Mendelssohn family and was handed down been child prodigies, and in fact it is the Brahms is quite secure. Yet he is still an of the first 19th-century enthusiasts for the within the family for several generations. At brilliant music of Mendelssohn’s extreme youth imperfectly-known composer, whose reputation music of JS Bach, and regularly met leading some point after World War II it was acquired by that has continued to uphold his reputation. continues to rest on a very partial selection of musicians from the Berlin Philharmonic the London-based rare book dealer (and amateur his works: the last two symphonies, say, the Orchestra. His adolescent works – even his violinist) Albi Rosenthal, who in the spring of It’s often said that if Mozart and Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E minor, the Hebrides overture, orchestral works – were performed at his 1951 showed this ‘lost’ Mendelssohn concerto had both died at the age of 20, Mendelssohn the Midsummer Night’s Dream music, the parents’ house by a private orchestra drawn to the world-famous violin virtuoso Yehudi would have been accounted by far the greater Octet and some of the other major chamber from these players. In such an environment Menuhin, who as a teenager had premiered the composer – for though both of them wrote compositions and the Songs without Words for his musical genius flowered and he wrote a ‘lost’ violin concerto of Schumann. Menuhin was copious music from an early age, Mendelssohn’s piano. Even the music of his brilliant early years remarkable series of works: no doubt intended at immediately attracted to the work and bought early works surpass Mozart’s in both substance is by no means familiar in its entirety: for first for domestic consumption, but also with his the rights to it from the surviving members of and originality. It was only later that Mozart’s instance, it includes the two concertos heard on ambitions fixed on a wider world. For example the Mendelssohn family, then living in genius came to full fruition, while in the view of this disc, written between the ages of 13 and 14. in 1822-23, in addition to the two concertos Switzerland. He gave the work its first public many critics Mendelssohn never surpassed his featured here, he composed a second Piano performance at Carnegie Hall, New York on 4 teenaged achievements in works like the String It is important to understand the milieu in which Quartet (the first was already published!), a February 1952, conducting a string orchestra Octet or the incidental music to A Midsummer Mendelssohn’s early symphonic works appeared. Piano Concerto, a Concerto for 2 pianos, eight with his violin bow, and it was published the - 4 - - 5 - same year. Subsequently Menuhin played the Mendelssohn had studied in Paris in 1816. mind Beethoven’s Triple Concerto for violin, up by the piano, the violin only entering later, concerto many times and made three recordings The concerto’s three movements represent a cello, piano and orchestra; he would certainly after which the orchestra has little to contribute of it, but it has never entered the mainstream kind of historical progression. The first, with have known that Mozart began such a work while the two soloists engage in an extended, repertoire, remaining rather on the fringes of it. its angular, broken melodic lines, recalls the only to abandon it (leaving a tantalizing almost operatic dialogue. The effervescent Allegro mannered empfindsam (ultra-sensitive) style fragment, K135f anh. 56). Laid out on an molto finale, in sonata form with a pell-mell Among his other talents, Mendelssohn was an associated with CPE Bach. Unlike the later E altogether larger scale than the D minor first and a sweetly lyrical second subject, is an excellent violinist even in his childhood, and minor concerto it begins with an orchestral Violin Concerto, this Double Concerto is one of utter delight of post-Mozartian charm and gave his first recital at the age of 9, though he exposition, and is continuously restless in mood. Mendelssohn’s most brilliant adolescent works. tremendous energy, culminating in a later took the piano for his chief instrument. He By contrast the opening of the D major Andante Superficially the two solo instruments would breathtakingly brilliant conclusion. wrote the D minor Concerto not for himself but for is based on a theme at once serenely classical, seem to be almost incompatible, though of his friend and violin teacher Eduard Rietz.