Mozart and Mendelssohn Violin Concertos

In the year of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s birth, 1756, his father Leopold published one of the most influential of all violin methods: The School of Violin Playing. It was therefore hardly surprising that young Wolfgang was taught the violin from an early age – although no one could have predicted his astounding progress. During the 1770s, he made appearances as a violin soloist in several Austro-German musical centres (including Vienna), and following one concert in Munich in 1777, reported proudly to Leopold: “I played as if I were the greatest fiddler in all of Europe.” – Four out of the five authenticated violin concertos by Mozart were composed during an eight-month period between April and December 1775, probably as a means of ingratiating himself with his employer, the Archbishop of Salzburg. Irrepressible energy and good humour is everywhere apparent in the opening Allegro aperto of the so-called “Turkish” Concerto, although contemporary audiences found the intensity of feeling generated by the heartfelt central Adagio so perplexing that Mozart composed a replacement, K. 261, the following year. The rondeau finale, however, was an instant hit, especially the “noisy” third episode composed in the extremely fashion able alla turca style, with cellos and basses instructed to play with the wood of their bows. – Perhaps the single most astonishing aspect of Schubert’s timeless artistry is that he achieved all he did in a lifetime spanning a mere 31 years. Largely undervalued in his day, it was not until the present century that the full scope of Schubert’s genius was finally appreciated. Of the three works he composed for violin and orchestra, the Rondo in A, composed in June 1816 during his first flush of success, is the most popular