FELIX MENDELSSOHN (IHO!-J-1!

347)
Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2
Concertos pour piano nos. 1 & 2
Klavierkonzerte Nr. 1 und 2

ANDRAS SCHIFF,

piano' Klavicr

Symphonie-Orchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks

Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra

CHARLES DUTOIT
Piano Concerto No.1 in G minor, opo25
Concerto pour piano no. I en sol nuncur, op.25
Klavicl'konzCIt Nr. I in g-moll, op. 25
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FELIX MENDELSSOHN (1809-1847)

Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2
Concertos pour piano nos. 1 & 2
Klavierkonzerte Nr. 1 und 2

ANDRAS SCHIFF, piano' Klavier

Symphonie-Orchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
CHARLES DUTOIT
Piano Concerto No.1 in G minor, op.25
Concerto pour piano no.l en sol mmeur, op.25
Klavierkonzert Nr. 1 in gomoll, op. 25
I Malta allegro con fuoco (6.53)

2
II Andante (5.27)

3
III Presto: Molto allegro e vivace (6.26)

Piano Concerto No.2 in D minor, op.40

Concerto pour piano no.2 en re mineur, op.40
Klavierkonzert Nr. 2 in d-moll, op. 40
I Allegro appassionato (9.14)
[I] II Adagio: Malta sostenuto (5.59)
l.fI II I Finale: Presto scherzando (7.05)
[QQQ]

Producer Directeur anistique . Aufnahmeleiter: Michael Haas

Sound Engineer' Ingenieur du son' Toningenieur: Slan Goodall
Cover' Couvenure . Titelseite: Photo of Andras Schiff and Charles DULOit by Bernard Bohn

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Mendelssohn: Piano concerto No.1 in G minor, opus 25

Piano concerto No.2 in D minor, opus 40
Mendelssohn was certainly able to play
the violin, though in chamber music
preferring to take the viola part; but his
chief instruments were the piano and
organ, on which he was universally
recognised as a player of distinction. It is,
then, perhaps a trifle odd that the most
popular of his concertos, without question,
is the one for violin that he wrote three
years before his premature death at the age
of thirty-eight, and that the two piano
concertos of his early manhood, for all their
engaging brilliance, are far less commonly
heard nowadays. Both of these were
written for himself to play (as were the
piano and, probably, the violin concerto
composed at the age of thirteen, the
delightful double concerto for piano and
violin, and the two works for two pianos, all
composed during the following couple of
years) and both were initially received with
great enthusiasm. Mendelssohn gave the
first performance of the G minor concerto
(which was dedicated to a young pianist
with whom he was rather taken) in Munich
on 17 October 1831; and though the
rehearsals were troublesome, on the night it
won loud and long applause: "Itgave the
people great pleasure, and they wanted, as is
the fashion here, to clap until I came out

again, but I was shy and wouldn't." The

second concerto was composed in a hurry
for the Birmingham Festival (only three
weeks previously Mendelssohn told his
mother that "not a note is written yet") and
first heard on 5 August 1837 by an
audience that greeted him with such
acclamation that for some time he was
unable to take his seat at the piano and
begin.
Mendelssohn seems to have disliked the
thought of having the continuity of his
music interrupted by applause between
movements (then customary), and took
steps in all three of his mature concertos to
obviate this possibility by linking some or
all of them. In the G minor work almost the
same brass fanfare connects the turbulent
opening movement with the romantic
Andante (which begins with a cello
cantilena) and that tender song-like
movement with the exuberant free-rondo
finale, near the end of which a
reminiscence of the first movement
appears. In the D minor the Allegro
appassionato (rather darker in mood than its
counterpart of six years earlier) also leads
into the slow movement (in which the
second half of the string melody becomes a
recurring refrain) by way of a brief and

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gentle solo modulation - neither work has

a conventional cadenza - but the finale is
merely marked to follow without a break,
and in this concerto there are no thematic
interconnections. One very conspicuous
structural feature of both works is the
absence of the orthodox first movement
"dou ble-exposition", that is to say, the
unfolding of the whole thematic material in
turn by the orchestra and the piano. Opus
40 has the soloist (as in Beethoven's
'Emperor' Concerto) twice bursting in at
the outset with imposing flourishes, but the
orchestra is then allowed only twenty bars

to expound the first subject, before the

piano takes over and dominates the
movement with only a couple of
half-minute pauses for breath; in opus 25
the piano is even more radical in asserting
its supremacy after a few introductory bars
by the orchestra, and then arrogating to
itself the presentation of both themes in its
virtually non-stop course, in which bravura
octave-work, sparkling runs and flying
arpeggios (particularly of
diminished-seventh chords) create a
dazzling effect.
Lionel Salter

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