Repertoire: The BEST and WORST Mendelssohn Violin Concerto

Mendelssohn's famous Violin Concerto in E minor is technically his second; the first, for violin and strings, is in D minor and remains a rarity both in concert and on disc. It appears as a coupling in a some of these outstanding recordings of its big brother--perhaps THE iconic romantic violin concerto. Every violinist records it, but not all do it as well as the dozen artists featured here (with one epic failure tossed into the pot, just to make the point).

[@vincentsheehan3193]

Whenever Dave says ‘avoid at all costs’ - that’s a sure fire way for me to search it out.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Yes, that's part of the fun, isn't it?

[@martinhaub2602]

The "Most Fun" version was made by Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops where the entire violin section (or most?) play the solo part together. But I don't know if it ever made it to CD. (We need a big Fiedler box!)

[@Nyssa337]

Hahn’s Mendelssohn has been a desert island recording for me since it’s original release along with the Shostakovich coupling. Repeat listenings never get old and the finale gets my fists pumping the air every time. Met HH at a signing once and she was such a nice person as well. That Sony box set has some fantastic performances. Thanks for the great content on this channel Mr Hurwitz.

[@robertp9838]

Dear David, thank you so much for making positive remarks about the Schumann Violin concerto, a concerto that I love so much too

[@Steve_Stowers]

I am eagerly awaiting a video on the repertoire for kazoo & orchestra.

[@SiChange]

Wonderful breadth of coverage , thank you. Joseph Suk’s recording of Dvorak’s violin concerto is a fave in my collection but I would it have thought to hear him in Mendelssohn without yr mention here.

[@hebrews619]

I was a student when I bought Cho-Liang Lin version (coupled with the Saint-Saen's 3rd). It was the early 90s and still my favourite to this day. Listen to the climax of the last movement.

[@carstenstampe]

Sorry if this is off topic but I have a great personal anecdote connected to this piece of music. I once used to work in a music store. It was Christmas and a lady enters the store. She tells me she is looking for a piece of music that was played on a violin on a train station in a movie. A week before or so, I had flipped through the channels on my TV and I stopped at a scene in a movie called French Connection with Gene Hackman. This scene was at a train station and on the platform was a violinist, playing the theme of the first movement of Mendelsohn’s Violin Concerto. Immediately when this lady asked me, I recalled the scene and immediately found was she was asking for. She was absolutely stunned 😁

[@deutschlander85]

Hi Dave. I'm a fairly new subscriber and have only just begun to explore the content that you have produced. I will say that it has been so very enjoyable to both learn new pieces, as well as experience old ones through the experience of an extremely knowledgeable music lover. Thank you also for sharing your thoughts on Heifetz that kicked off the video. I am actually writing a dissertation on Leopold Auer and the violin schools of St. Petersburg and Moscow. Your perspective was so eloquently expressed that I'll have to quote you in my section about Heifetz.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Good luck on your dissertation!

[@poturbg8698]

The automated iPhone transcripts of your talks are often hilarious. We have Joseph silk playing the bear concerto conducted by Carl and Cheryl (a great CD, actually). And Hilary Hahn is "part of the new parade of violence." She seems calm to me...

[@dennischiapello3879]

And classical congenital forms.

[@RequiemAeternam01]

3:46 - Jascha Heifetz/Charles Munch (RCA; 1959) 5:02 - Josef Suk/Karel Ančerl (Supraphon; 1964) 6:19 - Leonid Kogan/Constantin Silvestri (Testament; 1961) 9:27 - Pinchas Zukerman/Leonard Bernstein (Sony; 1969) 11:45 - Maxim Vengerov/Kurt Masur (Warner; 1993) 13:17 - Christian Ferras/Constantin Silvestri (Warner; 1957) 14:36 - Hilary Hahn/Hugh Wolff (Sony; 2002) 16:31 - Isabelle van Keulen/Lev Markiz (BIS; 1998) 18:30 - Nathan Milstein/Claudio Abbado (DG; 1973) 20:19 - Daniel Hope/Thomas Hengelbrock (DG; 2007) 22:54 - Viktoria Mullova/Sir Neville Marriner (Philips; 1991) 26:20 - Christian Tetzlaff/Paavo Järvi (Ondine; 2011)

[@ronaldhurwitz1823]

Hi Dave, again. I hate to point out the fact, and it is FACT, that you have left out, of your list, one of THE greatest violinists of the twentyith century. Since you may not be able to find his recording of Mendelssohn, listen to the Brahms Violin Concerto played by Oscar Shumsky. I'm not talking about good, I mean amazing. Outside of Heifetz, and Milstein, the rest of your list could be removed. Try it.

[@hallingerman2168]

Dave, I really enjoyed your Mendelssohn Violin Concerto(s) choices. Especially Zuckerman/Bernstein. And I agree with you that Zuckerman is such a fine artist, but not often mentioned today. I'm sure you know of Bernstein's other great recording of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto - with the great Isaac Stern on Mount Scopus (along with Hatikvah and the latter part of the Mahler Sym. 2 ("Resurrection"). The audience was in tears with Hatikvah and what a passionate performance of the Mendelssohn by Stern and the orchestra. This is a knockout performance - dynamic, probing and heartfelt. You can feel the music filling the Holy Land. I think it's still available on Spotify. Great job, Dave! Mendelssohn, Schumann and Brahms all have given us so much beauty and radiance for these challenging times.

[@johnwright7557]

Glad you included Zukerman. I haven’t heard his recording of the Mendelssohn, but agree he has been rather ignored in recent times. And he was also a great violist. One of my favorite CDs is his performance of Bartok’s 2nd Concerto and the Viola Concerto with Slatkin and St. Louis on RCA. Their performance of the Viola Concerto is outstanding and they included both endings of the Violin Concerto (the whole third movement twice). I actually prefer Bartok’s original version with all the brass glissandos at the end. Theirs is a fine account even if I prefer Mullova/Salonen and Tetzlaff/Gielen in that version.

[@LeonFleisherFan]

Nice! I was so convinced that when you came to your "However" pick that it would be Alfredo Campoli with Adrian Boult (with the fascinating coupling of Elgar), the violinist who publicly performed the Mendelssohn over 900 times, and probably knew it like no one else EVER. As always, I love your lists, as there's usually a couple I don't know. Keep up the great work!

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

The fact that he played it over 900 times doesn't mean he knew anything--just that he did it, over and over!

[@SiChange]

Some of these readings I know and love, and glad to learn of much to possibly explore; unusually evenhanded, review too. Among the other greats who may be overlooked, Kyung-wha Chung’s Mendelssohn is a fave for its lyricism and energy.

[@richardwhitehouse8762]

Another great vid. Here's a story I hope you will like, Dave. I first heard the Mendelssohn when I found it in my mum's LP collection when I was ten. So about 53 years ago. It was love at first listen - it still is. The LP disappeared some decades ago - CDs seemed like the thing, I still have them. Anyway, the soloist was; Mischa Elman. A funny old version on Fontana (was it an offshoot of Decca?), with the Monte Carlo Opera Orchestra. It was paired with the Lalo. I forget the conductor. Anyway, one of the things I loved about it was the photo on the front of a moody looking soloist holding a violin and with the odd violin in front or behind or to the sides. It took me a few years to discover much about Elman. Imagine my surprise when I discovered Mischa was a man! The photo was of a gorgeous, slightly sultry, redhead in a pretty chic (late 50s, I guess) black, sequin frock. In later years I noticed a bit of (very) small print which said: Gown by Susan Small. History doesn't relate if she was the model or couturier. There wasn't much info about the recording so it as hard to date. Might have been postwar, I guess. What I still remember about it was the unbelievably beautiful sound that came from Elman. The sweet core of it was absolutely ravishing. Really I still haven't heard the like, although Milstein is probably the nearest. Anyway, thanks for the Tetzlaff recommendation. Everything I've ever heard of his speaks of an artist of the highest rank.

[@musicfirst5020]

That Vengerov recording is something special. Very silvery, light but passionate Mendelssohn. I haven't quite heard anything like it. Stunning.

[@paulbrower4265]

I have thought of Mendelssohn's violin concerto as a tone poem with a difficult violin part. It is one of the most colorful of violin concertos.

[@chlee3831]

I'd like to make a very fine recommendation for Campoli and the London Philharmonic under Sir Adrian Boult in the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto. It is my go-to choice for the Mendelssohn. Campoli apparently performed the Mendelssohn about 900 times in his career but this 1958 Decca performance sounds absolutely fresh and newly minted in a new Eloquence mastering. He takes the piece seriously without intellectualizing it and plays with a gorgeously sweet tone without ever sounding schmaltzy. The first movement is virtuosic without sounding too hasty. The second movement is a beautiful "Song without Words" done with his gorgeously lyrical singing tone. The final movement is an elfin-like performance with an exultant ending.

[@jimyoung9262]

So glad to see Hilary Hahn on this list. Her Mendelssohn is absolutely stunning.

[@11km]

Glad you recommend Milstein/Abbado as your top choice. It's also one of my favorite recordings, although the violin's sound is a little thin at first relative to the orchestra. I also think Grumiaux (Haitink/Concertgebouw ,1959) and Szeryng (Dorati/London Symphony, 1964) are marvellous, both with a golden tone. Luckily these virtuosi recorded the work at the height of their powers.

[@FlaneurSolitaire]

I absolutely loooove the Schumann violin concerto. It is actually one of my two or three favourite violin concertos. There. I said it. And the relatively recent recording by Carolin Widmann is spectacular. Dave, as you said that nobody cares about it, but clearly YOU do, too, I really think now you should do a little survey of Schumann violin concerto recordings. Just to chill out after the Mendelssohn schlep. I mean: When do you ever get a major work from a major composer for a major solo instrument... that has been recorded by basically nobody?

[@HeelPower200]

The Schumann violin concerto has masterful first and 2nd movements ,but the 3rd movement betray Schumann's weaking faculties. It has some really awkward repetitions and sections that seem to just go nowhere. Still, the work seems to have a strange otherworldly quality to it.

[@shrill_2165]

In fact, my favourite recording of that concerto was from the very same conductor, orchestra and soloist which Dave advises us to avoid for the Mendelssohn in this video haha

[@michaelstearnes1526]

​@@HeelPower200I'm in a small minority of music lovers who admires Patricia Kopatchinskaja's YT performance. After the first movement, conductor Christolph Echenbach plays the "Ghost Variations" Schumanns final work. It's worth the watch. I also have her CD live performance.

[@dvorakslavenskiples]

I would mention one recording: it's played by the forgoten romanian violonist Ion Voicou who recorded the concerto with the LSO and Rafael F. de Burgos on Decca. The recording is in the Voicu decca eloquence box.

[@theodoremann1461]

Would you be kind enough to suggest an especially good recording of the Mendelssohn Concerto for Violin, Piano and Strings (MWC 04)? Many thanks.

[@rsmickeymooproductions4877]

The D minor concerto is absolutely beautiful. Mullova is not cold in this rendition. Warm as toast and delicious to match. Academy of St. Martin in the Fields are perfect partners. The Philips sound is some of the best when first released and is still today.

[@anthropocentrus]

Hillary hahn's truly is amazing, especially that last movement with such joyous virtuosity

[@jimyoung9262]

Love her playing. IMO Hilary is the GOAT

[@FREDGARRISON]

Feel sorry for Mendelssohn's D minor Violin Concerto. It found the fate as did Dvorak's Cello Concerto in A major from his earlier period. Dvorak never orchestrated it, but it now has been and there are a couple recordings of it out there. If you're a Dvorak fan, check it out. HI DAVE !!!!!

[@specialforces101]

Just listened to the Kogan and it's great. Very sympathetic accompaniment by Sylvestri. Kogan's tempi are near perfect and he makes sense of the slightly nervous phrasing needed to make the first movement flow naturally. He even wears correctly cut White Tie.

[@vibratoqueen450]

I've heard the Faust performance before! I was wondering why I wasn't moved by her performance of one of my more cherished works ("is there something wrong with my listening ears? I thought this was the new thing!"). Looking back, I often felt that way with "historical performance," especially when it's misused, and I'm glad I'm not the only one!

[@ThreadBomb]

If you want to hear a HIP performance of Mendelssohn's concerto, the Mullova/Gardiner recording is very good.

[@neilford99]

There's a fabulous live Milstein on Audite from Lucern Festival with Markevich. There's too few live Milstein recordings, and he sounds magnetic live.

[@joshuaC.]

For Mendelssohn I would really giving Hadelich's version a listen. He gave a most wonderful facelift in his interpretation of the Mendelssohn VC it is exciting, gripping yet elegant to the Nth degree.

[@Taosravenfan]

Thank you for talking about Milstein. His version is my favorite of the concerto even above Heifetz, who I think is the greatest ever.

[@andreuibars1361]

Dearest Dave, I would be very obliged if you could just recommend me a Mendelssohn's piano trio no. 2 recording. I congratulate me for having discovered your videos. I am living in a little village in the middle of nowhere without the possibility of attending live performances. So I listen to over a cd-player. I thank you for your guidance, Andreu Ivars

[@vdtv]

While on a train journey in Switzerland in 1981 with my father, we passed through Berne. A station anouncnement came on, introduced by four chimes, which, transposed to C, were C-E-G-C (last C an octave up on the first). It was in the right tempo to trigger a musical recognition in both my father and me, and we could hum how it went on. But could we name it? Never. The Dictionary of Musical Themes (that wonderful but woefully incomplete book) did not help (once we were back home). It became a running joke with us. It was fully ten years later when I put on Mendelssohn's d minor concerto and finally found the snippet at the start of the slow movement. Strange how that inocuous theme had buried itself deep in our subconsciousness. I had heard (and recorded!) it exactly once before, in the late 70s. Yet Mendelssohn's music had nestled in the brain, and never let go. Amazing experience. (the recording, by the way, was a concert on live radio by the Frysk Orkest (Dutch Frisian Orchestra) under David Porcelijn (of CPO Röntgen cycle fame) and Emmy Verhey - should anyone care)

[@mohammedkebir8696]

Hi Dave, When are you going to do the Bruch Violin Concerto?

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

I sort of talked about it a few times.

[@markmiller3713]

I'm glad you mentioned Daniel Hope. He's an outstanding violinist that I don't think gets the recognition he deserves (at least in the USA). Maybe he's more well known in Europe.

[@lawebbermusic6991]

Just to say that about 50 years ago there was an LP of Menuhin and Fruhbeck de Burgos playing the two Mendelssohn concertos. A very good point too about the potential of a cd being a programme. In the old days you had to turn over the LP and I would think that in many cases one side was hardly played.

[@lawebbermusic6991]

And 45 years ago, the seemingly near-forgotten Accardo also recorded both. So people had some good intentions back then too.

[@likbezpapuasov4888]

Can you remind me who played this concerto on the celeste or was it rock synthesizer sounding like celeste? Performance was the worst of the worst because was done by dilettantes or rock band but the sound was best of the best as if was written for celeste.

[@stevenmsinger]

I am really looking forward to listening to the Mullova and Tetlaff discs. The couplings, alone, make those discs sound special. When it comes to the Mendelssohn E minor I agree that it's pretty much fool proof. The deciding factor for me is the violin tone of the performer and I prefer the fat, passionate Russian school. Heifetz is virtuosic as Hell (and part of that school) but he sounds kind of thin to me. I'm particularly interested to hear your appraisal of the Schumann Violin concerto. I find it really interesting but haven't made up my mind about it. There just don't seem to be enough recordings, and forget about hoping to hear it live. As for the first youthful Mendelssohn Violin Concerto and his Concerto for Violin and Piano, I love them to pieces. That BIS box is a treasure!

[@robertdandre94101]

Interresting words by francois rené tranchefort about this concerto in the book '' guide de la musique symphonique''(fayard)....''- cette partition d'une merveilleuse inspiration aura conquis la renommée universelle sur un malentendu,...maint virtuose de l'archet y a brillé pour sa propre gloire,alors que l,oeuvre,tant par son naturel,que par les raffinements du style concertant,exige une interpretation toute de sobriété.....-''...( i hope you can read french....)

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Sure. Thanks.

[@hanschiu53]

How is Cho-Liang LIn's recordig???

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Fine.

[@GeorgesGondard]

I am fond of Kyoko Takezawa and Claus Peter Flor with the Bamberg orchestra.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

A very fine performance--a real "sleeper."

[@smileydts]

"you can never rule out perversity" -- t-shirt?

[@brunoluong7972]

I watch the video while working, I do miss the worst recording, which is it ?

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Isabelle Faust.

[@brunoluong7972]

@@DavesClassicalGuide Thanks. I agree.

[@omatje14]

Off-topic: I was going through the BRSO catalogue, and was shocked to see they have sunken to a new low: now they are issuing cd's that are just rehearsal excerpts of Mariss Jansons, *without* including the work that was actually rehearsed for(!) What is this lunacy! Who buys nonesense like this? I would be fine with this if the orchestra was privately funded, but this is public subsidies being wasted on complete and utter nonsense. We need a scolding essay where you call them out, Dave!

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

I sort of did in the big Jansons box. I agree--craziness.

[@omatje14]

@@DavesClassicalGuide Ah, missed that one. You're too prolific for me to keep up!

[@markfarrington5183]

Violinitude...Contact Miriam Webster - I think you've just coined a new legitimate word.

[@bbailey7818]

One version I heard recently I didn't care for at all that the old Penguin guide gave three *** to is Perlman with Previn and the LSO (EMI in the Warner box). The first mvt at nearly 14 minutes is too damn slow, dull and lackluster. Nothing that follows really redeems it, the elfin sprightliness of the last mvt is completely lost. The coupled Bruch was excellent but Penguin can take their three stars and shove 'em. I'll take the two Hs, Heifetz and Hahn, Milstein and others you cited any day.

[@tommynielsen7163]

I stopped looking for recordings of the concert once I came across Francescatti and Szell. Now, I don’t listen to anybody else. Francescatti is stupendous but Szell really knows how the accompaniment goes. He is head and shoulders above the competition.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Except when he's not.

[@ThreadBomb]

I don't know about Faust, but her conductor Heras-Casado is mediocre and may well be the problem there. His entire Mendelssohn cycle with that orchestra was a bust as far as I'm concerned. If you want to hear a HIP performance of Mendelssohn's concerto, the Mullova/Gardiner recording is very good!

[@briankuzak5881]

Hahn's Schoenberg felt strangely romantic to me, I may be nutz but it seems so after every listen

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

It IS romantic.

[@briankuzak5881]

@@DavesClassicalGuide Glad to know a musician/musical historian agrees -My wife, an amateur classical pianist is the one who thinks I'm nutz

[@michelangelomulieri5134]

I'm not sure, but Gidon Kremer recorded the concerto for violin and strings, didn't he?

[@michaelshulman5068]

I did NOT like Hahn's treatment of the 3rd movement, on her recording. I felt that it was much too fast. It was a technical marvel, but doing it that fast, all the lyrical beauty of the music was lost. This is very strange, since I greatly praise all other Hahn recordings I've ever heard.

[@michaelshulman5068]

I'm not going to suggest that it was a great recording - I hardly have the skill to determine that - but I really liked the Isaac Stern "Great Performances" recording from many decades ago. If violinists were opera singers, Stern would be a heldentenor. I love how he give mighty energy and passion to the second movement.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

It is wonderful. You have all the skill you need.

[@ErikDorset]

Okay, sir, a challenge: You pretty much wiped Isabelle Faust's performance off the face of the planet with your comment that the FBO sounds "grotesque" and Isabelle Faust "threw her life away trying to adopt a period instrument hideous sonority". Still, in detail, I'd like to know exactly is it what offends you with this performance. Details, sir, details... Provide us a video where you tear the performance apart and comment on all those historical aspects that annoy you. This, by the way, comes from an American violinist who studied historical performance at Oberlin and in Basel, has been a member of the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin for nearly three decades (taking part in performances with Isabelle Faust), and currently lives less than one mile away from the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, where, as you undoubtedly know, Mendelssohn, a deep admirer of Bach, was kapellmeister. Again, details, sir - track numbers, minutes, and seconds that allow one to understand in detail what offends you. Thank you.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

I appreciate your comments, if not the pretentious, "pompous ass" style of delivery, but I don't operate on your schedule or at your behest. My views on this recording are set forth in considerable detail in a written review on Classictoday.com, which you are welcome to read if you subscribe to that service. That review not only addresses the issues you raise, it offers musical examples for comparative listening, which speak for themselves. If you don't subscribe to Classicstoday.com, there are still many free reviews as well covering Ms. Faust's recordings for you to enjoy.

[@johnnewton4461]

“You can never rule out perversity.” 😂 Indeed.

[@detectivehome3318]

I'm calling it the top choice has to be Munch/Heifetz The video's 3 mins old by the time I'm writing this btw Edit: It's not 😔

[@Misha.K23040]

It was already Dave’s choice in his Ideal Romantic Violin Concertos video so…