SKU: BR.SON-423

ISBN 9790004802656. 9 x 12 inches.

It is significant that the highly self-critical Mendelssohn could envision if at all only four-hand piano arrangements of his Concert Overtures nos. 2, 3 and 4. He made it clear to the publisher Breitkopf & Hartel that a two-hand version would find no admirers. Since Mendelssohn made his own arrangements of the Hebrides Overture (op. 26) and the Overture zur schoenen Melusine (op. 32), this gives the Leipzig Mendelssohn Complete Edition the opportunity to bring out a slender supplementary volume to the orchestral scores of the four Concert Overtures (LMA I/8).

SKU: BR.SON-443

ISBN 9790004803516. 10 x 12.5 inches.

Mendelssohn's ConfessionThe Reformation Symphony, misleadingly numbered posthumously as 5 by its publishers, was Mendelssohn's first confrontation with the large symphonic form in Beethoven's wake. Linking it conceptually with the 300th anniversary of the Augsburg Confession in 1830 seems to have first occurred late in the progress of its composition, yet the premiere did not take place until 1832 and ultimately even enabled the composer to distance himself completely from his work and its concept. Thanks to access to a new source [or, ... new access to sources... or ...new access to a source...?], this edition can now finally refute the legend that a separate original or early version of the symphony once existed.

SKU: BR.SON-426

ISBN 9790004803073. 10 x 12.5 inches.

Elijah - Early Versions document a decade that ranges from the first conceptional ideas of 1837, hence directly after the completion of St. Paul, to the world premiere of Elijah on 26 August 1846. Mendelssohn had already worked out the plan for a libretto with his friend Carl Klingemann in 1837. Shortly thereafter, Klingemann sent a text which the composer then passed on to his friend, the theologian Julius Schubring. Then began a breathtaking logistical marathon in which Mendelssohn, during the final phase, raced to prepare the world premiere in Birmingham from Leipzig, while simultaneously taking the elaboration of the libretto increasingly into his own hands; indeed, he was, as usual, still changing, deleting, and even adding entirely new numbers at the rehearsals - with the result that the performance was ultimately only an essay, a pre-world premiere of the great work which he was later to subject to several more revisions.

Awarded the German Music Edition Prize 2023.

SKU: BR.SON-454

ISBN 9790004803646. 9 x 12 inches.

The Violin Concerto in E minor, op. 64, and the Sonata in F minor, op. 4, are the only works for solo violin that Mendelssohn had had printed during his lifetime. However, his complete oeuvre includes other completed or fragmentary compositions, including two further concertos and several unfinished sonatas and other individual pieces. He himself had an extraordinary command of the violin and entrusted the instrument in several other works, such as the Octet op. 20 or the concert aria Infelice! - Ah, ritorno, eta dell'oro, with special tasks. Nevertheless, with regard to details of playing technique, he usually sought advice from solo violinist friends, first from Eduard Ritz, then, after Ritz's early death, from Ferdinand David. The present volume contains all of the completed and fragmentary compositions for violin and piano that have survived - from the early Prelude and Fugue in D and G minor from Zelter's practice book (1820), which can be assigned without doubt, through to the Sonata in F major (1838) in their various versions.