Concerto for Violin, in E Minor, Op. 64
I. Allegro molto appassionato II. Andante III. Allegretto non troppo; allegro molto vivace
The concerto does not call for any true depth of emotional display. The sentiment is amiable and genteel, with a dash of becoming melancholy, and the strength is the conventional strength of a man who in music had little virility. Beautifully made, a polished piece of mechanism, the concerto always, under favorable circumstances, interests and promotes contagious good feeling.
Mendelssohn in his youth composed a violin concerto with accompaniment of stringed instruments, also a concerto for violin and pianoforte (1823) with the same sort of accompaniment. These works were left in manuscript. It was at the time that he was put into jackets and trousers. Probably these works were played at the musical parties at the Mendelssohn house in Berlin on alternate Sunday mornings. Mendelssohn took violin lessons first with Carl Wilhelm Henning and afterwards with Eduard Rietz, for whom he wrote this early violin concerto. When Mendelssohn played any stringed instrument, he preferred the viola.
As early as 1838 Mendelssohn conceived the plan of composing a violin concerto in the manner of the one in E minor, for on July 30 he wrote to Ferdinand David: “I should like to write a violin concerto for you next winter. One in E minor is running in my head, and the beginning does not leave me in peace.” On July 24 of the next year he wrote from Hochheim to David, who had pressed him to compose the concerto: “It is nice of you to urge me for a violin concerto! I have the liveliest desire to write one for you, and if I have a few propitious days here, I’ll bring you something. But the task is not an easy one. You demand that it should be brilliant, and how is such a one as I to do this? The whole of the first solo is to be for the E string!”
The concerto was composed in 1844 and completed on September 16 of that year at Bad Soden, near Frankfort-on-the-Main. David received the manuscript in November. Many letters passed between the composer and the violinist. David gave advice freely. Mendelssohn took time in revising and polishing. Even after the score was sent to the publishers in December, there were more changes. David is largely responsible for the cadenza as it now stands.
Mendelssohn played parts of the concerto on the pianoforte to his friends; the whole of it to Moscheles at Bad Soden.
The first performance was from manuscript at the twentieth Gewandhaus concert in Leipsic, March 13, 1845. Ferdinand David was the violinist. Niels W. Gade conducted.
The concerto is in three connected movements. The first, allegro molto appassionato, E minor, 2-2, begins immediately after an introductory measure with the first theme given out by the solo violin. This theme is developed at length by the solo instrument, which then goes on with cadenza-like passage-work, after which the theme is repeated and developed as a tutti by the full orchestra. The second theme is first given out pianissimo in harmony by clarinets and flutes over a sustained organ-point in the solo instrument. The chief theme is used in the development which begins in the solo violin. The brilliant solo cadenza ends with a series of arpeggios, which continue on through the whole announcement of the first theme by orchestral strings and wind. The conclusion section is in regular form. There is no pause between this movement and the andante.
The first section of the andante, C major, is a development of the first theme sung by the solo violin. The middle part is taken up with the development of the second theme, a somewhat agitated melody. The third part is a repetition of the first, with the melody in the solo violin, but with a different accompaniment. Mendelssohn originally intended the accompaniment (strings) to the first theme to be played pizzicato. He wrote to David, “I intended to write in this way, but something or other—I don’t know what—prevented me.”
The finale opens with a short introduction, allegretto non troppo, E minor, 4-4. The main body of the finale, allegro molto vivace, E major, 4-4, begins with calls on horns, trumpets, bassoons, drums, answered by arpeggios of the solo violin and tremolos in the strings. The chief theme of the rondo is announced by the solo instruments. The orchestra has a second theme, B major; the violin one in G major. In the recapitulation section the fortissimo second theme appears again, this time in E major. There is a brilliant coda.
Mendelssohn used the following orchestration for the works discussed in this chapter (save for the addition of an ophicleide in the overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream): two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, kettledrums, and strings.
—EDITOR.