About this edition
Mendelssohn wrote his First Piano Concerto in G minor in just a few days during the spring of 1831, and he premiered it himself in Munich that October with an orchestra of admirers who reportedly gasped at its opening flourish. What makes the work remarkable is its formal daring: the three movements are fused together without pause, linked by a recurring brass fanfare that Mendelssohn uses to bridge each transition — a structural innovation that influenced concerto writing for the rest of the century. Brilliant, urgent, and compact, it remains one of the most frequently performed Romantic concertos, prized by pianists for its combination of virtuosic fire and lyrical warmth.
This edition reproduces the score as published in Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy's Werke, Serie 8, issued by Breitkopf & Härtel in Leipzig between 1874 and 1882 (plate M.B. 32). Edited by Julius Rietz — a conductor and composer who had worked closely within Mendelssohn's circle — this collected edition was among the first serious efforts to establish a standard, scholarly text of Mendelssohn's music in the decades following his death. Breitkopf & Härtel's Gesamtausgabe series set the model for critical editions of the era, and Rietz's edition of the concerto has long served as a primary reference source for performers and scholars alike.
About this edition:
- Full orchestral score, engraved and formatted for study and performance reference
- Page size: 8.5 x 11 inches
- Reproduced from a historical public domain source
- Published by Purple 4R Publishing
Because the Breitkopf & Härtel edition has long since entered the public domain, we're glad to bring this historic score back into print in a clean, readable format — making Mendelssohn's brilliant concerto freely accessible again to conductors, performers, students, and anyone who loves this repertoire.
