Mendelssohn piano concerto 2 yuja wang biography

The Piano Concerto No. 2 in D minor, Op. 40, was written in 1837 by Felix Mendelssohn and premiered at the Birmingham Festival on 21 September that year, an event that also saw the premiere of Mendelssohn's oratorio St.

Paul.^[1] He had already written a piano concerto in A minor with string accompaniment (1822), two concertos with two pianos (1823–4), and his first Piano Concerto. The concerto is about 25 minutes in length, and is scored for solo piano, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, and strings.

History

Unusually for Mendelssohn, who often produced his compositions quickly, the Second Piano Concerto took him a great deal of effort.^[2] Its genesis dates to the period shortly after his marriage and is first mentioned in a letter to his friend Karl Klingemann [de] while on honeymoon: "aber ein Konzert machte ich mir so gern für England, und kann immer noch nicht d