1. “Violin Concerto in E minor, op. 64” by Felix Mendelssohn
For the second week in a row, we have some pretty weak musical choices. I’m not sure whether it’s solely the music or my mood, but this week felt like it was dedicated to boredom. There were no interesting works in it except for this Violin Concerto by Felix Mendelssohn, and we’re talking about skipping compositions by Mozart, Debussy and Schubert.
This is one of the most popular and regularly performed concert in the violin repertoire, and it took Mendelssohn over six years to complete. Despite being such a famous and acclaimed work, I only like parts of it, as I find some moments to be too high-pitched or scratchy (as it often happens with most of the violin concerts for me).
IDAGIO and Amazon for: dir. Eugene Ormandy, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Isaac Stern (Violin)
Disclaimer: this is not an exhaustive list of all the works curated by Clemency Burton-Hill in the book “Year of wonder: classical music for every day”. To enjoy the full catalogue of pieces proposed by the author along with her comments on the composers and the music itself, feel free to pick up her awesome book here (not affiliated, nor sponsored).