About this edition
Composed in 1837 during the happiest and most productive years of Mendelssohn's brief life, the Piano Concerto No. 2 in D minor is a work of taut drama and glittering virtuosity, written for the composer's own hands and premiered by him at the Birmingham Festival that same year. Though it has long lived in the shadow of its more famous sibling, the G minor Concerto No. 1, this second concerto rewards close study with its urgent, stormy opening movement, a songful Adagio of real tenderness, and a finale that surges forward with the rhythmic brilliance so characteristic of Mendelssohn's mature style. For conductors and pianists seeking to expand beyond the standard concerto repertoire, this is a compelling and underappreciated masterwork.
This edition reproduces the score as published in Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdys Werke, Serie 8, issued by Breitkopf & Härtel in Leipzig between 1874 and 1882 (plate M.B. 33). Edited by Julius Rietz — a conductor, composer, and close contemporary of Mendelssohn who took on the enormous task of preparing the composer's collected works for publication in the decades following his death — this collected edition remains one of the foundational scholarly editions of Mendelssohn's output. Rietz's editorial work, undertaken with direct access to manuscript sources and firsthand knowledge of period performance practice, gives this edition a level of authority and historical proximity to the composer that later editions have sought to emulate.
About this edition:
- Full orchestral score, engraved for study and performance use
- Page size: 8.5 x 11 inches, printed for clarity and durability
- Reproduced from a historical public domain source
- Published by Purple 4R Publishing
Because the original Breitkopf & Härtel edition has long since entered the public domain, we're glad to be able to bring this historically important score back into print, making Mendelssohn's D minor Concerto freely accessible to conductors, orchestral musicians, students, and scholars alike.
