Mendelssohn Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2

Remarkable: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, who himself was a piano virtuoso, found it difficult to compose for his very own instrument. As he confessed in 1838 in a letter to his friend and fellowcomposer Ferdinand Hiller, writing for the piano “was not the greatest of pleasure” for him. It seemed that, despite the many early solo and chamber-music works he had written for the piano, Mendelssohn still doubted the quality of his works involving this instrument. He had already indicated this when completing the Rondo Brillant for Piano and Orchestra in E flat, Op. 29. In a letter dated February 7, 1834 to the piano virtuoso and composer, Ignaz Moscheles, he criticized his Op. 29 as follows: “Once again, this Rondo has made me very aware of my own lack of novel twists and turns on the piano: this is where I always falter and struggle, and I fear that you will notice this […] but I cannot imagine how to begin to make even a simple, tranquil piece […]”.