Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64
Composer: Felix Mendelssohn
Date of publication: 1845
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. Three years later, he began writing a violin concerto that they could perform together. The concerto ended up taking him six years to compose, with the technical and compositional advice of David. The concerto, one of the foremost violin concertos of the Romantic era, was well received and soon became regarded as one of the greatest violin concertos of all time. Although the concerto consists of three movements in a standard fast–slow–fast structure and each movement follows a traditional form, the concerto 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 rather than following an orchestral preview of the first movement's major themes, as was typical in Classical-era concertos.
Fun Fact: The concerto is also unique due to its through-composed form, in which the three movements are melodically and harmonically connected and played attacca. This means each movement immediately follows the previous one without any pauses.
Movements:
I. Allegro molto appassionato
II. Andante
III. Allegretto non troppo – Allegro molto vivace
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