Accompanied by the hr-Sinfonieorchester (Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra), American violinist Hilary Hahn performs Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64. Recorded at the Korean Art Centre Concert Hall in Seoul, Korea on June 11, 2012. Conductor: Paavo Järvi.

Hilary Hahn &hr-Sinfonieorchester (Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra) – Mendelssohn Violin Concerto E Minor OP.64 (Full Length)

Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto

The concerto is Mendelssohn’s last large orchestral work. Premiered in Leipzig on March 13, 1845, it forms an important part of the violin repertoire and is one of the most popular and most frequently performed violin concertos of all time.

Anyone aspiring to be a concert violinist simply has to have this one in his or her repertoire.

Classic.fm

In 1906, the year before his death, celebrated violinist Joseph Joachim told the guests at his 75th birthday party:

The Germans have four violin concertos. The greatest, most uncompromising is Beethoven’s. The one by Brahms vies with it in seriousness. The richest, the most seductive, was written by Max Bruch. But the most inward, the heart’s jewel, is Mendelssohn’s.

Joseph Joachim

The work is scored for solo violin and a standard classical orchestra consisting of two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani, and strings.

The concerto consists of three movements with the following tempo markings:

  1. Allegro molto appassionato (E minor). Instead of an orchestral tutti, the concerto opens with the almost immediate entry of the solo violin, playing the very tune in E minor that gave Mendelssohn no peace. Following a bravura of rapidly ascending notes, the opening theme is then restated by the orchestra. There is then a frenetic chromatic transition passage as the music subsides and modulates into a tranquil second subject theme in G major. The melody is initially played by the woodwinds with the soloist providing a pedal note on an open G string. The tune is played by the solo violin itself before a short codetta ends the exposition section of the opening movement. The opening two themes are then combined in the development section, where the music builds up to the innovative cadenza, which Mendelssohn wrote out in full rather than allowing the soloist to improvise. The cadenza builds up speed through rhythmic shifts from quavers to quaver-triplets and finally to semiquavers, which require ricochet bowing from the soloist. This serves as a link to the recapitulation, where the opening melody is played by the orchestra, accompanied by the continuing ricochet arpeggios by the soloist. During the recapitulation, the opening themes are repeated with the second theme being played in the E major before returning to E minor for the closing of the movement. The music gathers speed into the coda, which is marked “Presto”, before a variant of the original chromatic transition passage ends the first movement.
  2. Andante (C major). The bassoon sustains its B from the final chord of the first movement before moving up a semitone to middle C. This serves as a key change from the E minor opening movement into the lyrical C major slow movement. The movement is in ternary form and is reminiscent of Mendelssohn’s own Songs Without Words. The theme to the darker, middle section in A minor is first introduced by the orchestra before the violin then takes up both the melody and the accompaniment simultaneously. The tremulous accompaniment requires nimble dexterity from the soloist before the music returns to the main lyrical C major theme, this time leading towards a serene conclusion.
  3. Allegretto non troppo – Allegro molto vivace (E major). Following the second movement, there is a brief fourteen-bar transitional passage in E minor for solo violin and strings only. This leads into the lively and effervescent finale, the whole of which is in E major and whose opening is marked by a trumpet fanfare. This movement is in sonata rondo form with an opening theme requiring fast passage work from the soloist. The opening exposition leads into a brief second B major theme which is played by the soloist and builds to a series of rapidly ascending and descending arpeggios, reminiscent of the cadenza from the first movement. The orchestra then plays a variation of the opening melody, after which the music moves into a short development section in G major. The recapitulation is essentially similar to the exposition, apart from the addition of a counter-melody in the strings. The second theme is repeated, this time in the home key of E Major. There is almost a small cadenza near the end of the movement when the woodwinds play the main tune against prolonged trills from the solo violin. The concerto then concludes with a frenetic coda.

Sources

  • Violin Concerto (Mendelssohn) on Wikipedia
  • Felix Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E Minor on the Classic.fm website
M. Özgür Nevres

Published by M. Özgür Nevres

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