Mendelssohn: Double Piano Concerto in A-Flat Major/ E Major

Mendelssohn

(1809~1847/38세)

 

 

 

Double Piano Concerto in E Major  

 

At the pianos: Love Derwinger & Roland Pöntinen.
With: The Nieuw Sinfonietta Amsterdam, under the baton of Lev Markiz.

Artwork:
Portrait of Mendelssohn from 1839 by James Warren Childe (1778-1862).
All other artwork by Mendelssohn himself.

 

The Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra in E Major was written in the late summer and

early fall of 1823 by the young Felix Mendelssohn when he was 14 years old. It was first performed in

December of 1823 with Felix and his sister Fanny Mendelssohn as the two soloists.

There are three movements:

1. Allegro vivace
2. Adagio non troppo
3. Allegro
4. =================================================================================

 

 

Double Piano Concerto in A-Flat Major

 

At the pianos: Love Derwinger & Roland Pöntinen.
With: The Nieuw Sinfonietta Amsterdam, under the baton of Lev Markiz.

Artwork:
Lithograph by Friedrich Jentzen (1815-1901) from 1837, covering the painting by Theodor Hildebrandt (1804-1874).
All other artwork by Mendelssohn himself.

 

The Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra in A-flat major was written by Felix Mendelssohn when he was 15 years old. and is dated 12 November 1824.^[1] Written for two pianos and a full orchestra, the work received its first public performance in Berlin, in 1825. The composer and his mentor Ignaz Moscheles, who inspired its composition, were the soloists. He performed it again on 20 February 1827 at Stettin, where the cathedral organist, composer, baritone singer and conductor Carl Loewe organised concerts. Loewe and Mendelssohn were the two piano soloists on that occasion.^[2]

This concerto and its predecessor, the E major concerto, may be the first works composed for full orchestra by Mendelssohn.

The concerto may have been inspired by the occasion when Mendelssohn met Ignaz Moscheles in Berlin in 1824, when Moscheles accepted an invitation to visit Abraham Mendelssohn Bartholdy to give some music lessons to his children Felix and Fanny.

The concerto was not played for many years until the manuscript was found in the archive of the Berlin State Library in 1950.^[1]

There are three movements:

1. Allegro vivace
2. Andante
3. Allegro vivace