@greatestmusiccomposer: Mendelssohn started writing this violin concerto in 1838. He finished it in 1844. Six years. For a composer who could write an overture in a single afternoon, who had completed his first symphony at 15, who moved through music the way most people move through conversation — six years is almost incomprehensible. He wrote to his friend Ferdinand David, the violinist for whom the concerto was intended, constantly during those years. Asking for technical advice. Questioning his own decisions. Rewriting passages he had already rewritten. In one letter he wrote that he had “a violin concerto in E minor running through his head” and that “the beginning gives him no peace.” The beginning. The very opening you just heard. What Mendelssohn eventually settled on was revolutionary: the solo violin enters after just two bars of orchestral introduction. No long tutti. No waiting. The soloist simply begins — as if the music had already been happening somewhere and we’ve only just arrived to hear it. It is now one of the most performed violin concertos ever written. Violinists learn it as students and return to it as masters. It has been recorded thousands of times. Mendelssohn died three years after its premiere. He was 38. He spent six years afraid it wasn’t good enough. He was wrong. Have you ever spent a long time on something you weren’t sure was worth it? Tell me below ↓ 🎻 Mendelssohn — Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64 — I. Allegro molto appassionato Follow @greatestmusiccomposer — the stories behind the music nobody told you. #classicalmusic #mendelssohn #violin #concerto #orchestra