Mendelssohn: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2 / Capriccio Brillant / Rondo Brillant

Featuring

Róbert Stankovský
Benjamin Frith
Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy

Did you know?

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Performer Biography

Benjamin Frith, the pianist on this recording, won the British National Concerto Competition at age fourteen and later a Gold Medal in the Arthur Rubinstein Piano Master Competition.

Compositional Technique

Mendelssohn's Piano Concerto No. 1, Op. 25, features three linked movements to prevent audiences from applauding between movements, a technique later adopted by Liszt in his concertos.

Composer Biography

Felix Mendelssohn, the composer, was the grandson of Moses Mendelssohn, a great Jewish thinker of the Enlightenment.

Composer Biography

Mendelssohn's family was influential in cultural circles, encouraging both musical and general cultural interests, and fostering an unusual breadth of mind.

Recording & Production

This album was recorded at the House of Arts in Košice, Slovakia, in two sessions: April 27-30, 1992, and September 13-14, 1992.

Compositional Technique

Mendelssohn's Piano Concerto No. 1 is unusual because it dispenses with the customary orchestral exposition, allowing only seven bars of introduction before the soloist enters.

Compositional Technique

The Piano Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 25, combines the traditional three-movement concerto form with a single-movement concert piece, a solution that found imitators into the 20th century.