2nd piano concerto (Mendelssohn)
The Piano Concerto No. 2 in D minor, Op. 40 ( MWV O 11 ) is a piano concerto by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy .
Emergence
Immediately after his honeymoon with his wife Cécile , née Jeanrenaud, Mendelssohn wrote the Piano Concerto op. 40; the work lasted from June to August 1837. The concert is mentioned for the first time in a letter he wrote to his childhood friend Karl Klingemann during his honeymoon : “But I really enjoyed doing a concert for England, and I still can't get to it. I want to know why it is so difficult for me. "
To the music
Sentence names
- Allegro appassionato
- adagio
- Finale: Presto scherzando
analysis
All sentences merge into one another.
The first movement is introduced by the orchestra, which is supported by the piano after five bars. Then the orchestra introduces the first theme of the movement, while the piano follows with the second theme. The sentence is reminiscent of Robert Schumann .
A pianissimo in the first movement leads to the lyrical second movement.
The third movement combines elements of rondo and sonata form ; Mendelssohn described the Presto as "piano fireworks".
effect
Mendelssohn conducted the world premiere of the concert on September 21, 1837 at the 14th Music Festival in Birmingham . Robert Schumann, who was friends with Mendelssohn, counted the work among Mendelssohn's "most volatile products" and wrote: "It is as if you shake a tree, the ripe, sweet fruit falls down easily."
Mendelssohn himself wrote about his composition: "The concerto does not seem very special as a composition, but the last piece has so much effect as a piano fireworks display that I often have to laugh and Cécile cannot hear it often enough."
literature
- Christoph Hahn, Siegmar Hohl (ed.): Bertelsmann concert guide . Bertelsmann Lexikon Verlag, Gütersloh / Munich 1993, ISBN 3-570-10519-9
- Harenberg concert guide . Harenberg Kommunikation, Dortmund 1998, ISBN 3-611-00535-5
Web links
- Piano Concerto No. 2 : Sheet Music and Audio Files in the International Music Score Library Project
Individual evidence
- ^ Karl Klingemann (Ed.): Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy's correspondence with Legation Councilor Karl Klingemann in London. Essen, Baedeker 1909, p. 214 ( digitized version ).