Mendelssohn's Second Piano Concerto, Op. 40, and the Origins of his Serenade and Allegro Giojoso, Op. 43

Abstract

Felix Mendelssohn's Serenade and Allegro giojoso, op. 43, was composed rapidly for his performance in a concert in Leipzig on 2 April 1838. Originally entitled Adagio and Rondo, the concert piece underwent substantial revision before its publication in late February the following year. The autograph sources reveal that Mendelssohn's Piano Concerto No. 2 in D minor, op. 40, composed less than a year before in 1837, influenced the Serenade and Allegro giojoso's musical content. Not only do the two works for piano and orchestra share a key and thematic material, but an extended sketch found in the Mendelssohn Nachlaß 19 (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Preußischer Kulturbesitz) was part of the compositional history of the concerto, yet served as the basis for a transition, later rejected, between the Serenade and Allegro giojoso's two movements. Revisions to the Mendelssohn Nachlaß 30 draft of op. 43 show Mendelssohn working to make his new work more like the D minor concerto. Not only were parts of the early stages of op. 43 derived from op. 40 sketches, but the finished work suggests that Mendelssohn, facing the proof sheets for op. 40 while working on the Serenade and Allegro giojoso, had not yet worked the concerto's musical material out of his artistic consciousness.