Mendelssohn: Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra in E Major (1823)

In 1823 the adolescent Felix Mendelssohn completed his Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra in E Major. Regarded as immature by the budding composer, the work was set aside and not published. The concerto remained in manuscript until 1961 when the Leipziger Ausgabe der Werke Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy issued a version substantially revised by Mendelssohn (perhaps a decade after the premiere) and edited by Karl-Heinz Köhler. The present edition of the original version of the first movement allows us to see for the first time Mendelssohn's initial conception of the work at this nascent time in his development. Moreover, by comparing the original version with Köhler's, it is possible to view the "composer's workshop." In this score Mendelssohn grapples with such issues as the role of virtuosity, harmonic design, and the thematic relationships between tutti instruments and soloists. The present edition offers a fascinating glimpse into a crucial point in the evolution of the concerto genre by one of the most important composers writing for the genre in the early nineteenth century.

Peter Ward Jones, Music & Letters, Date unknown