Concerto in D Minor for Violin and String Orchestra

When Mendelssohn died, his widow gave the manuscript of the long forgotten concerto to Ferdinand David, another close friend of Mendelssohn's and a leading violinist of the period, who in fact had premiered his Violin Concerto in E minor. Yehudi Menuhin, the violin virtuoso, was shown the manuscript of the concerto in the spring of 1951 in London by Albi Rosenthal, an amateur violinist and rare books dealer. He bought the rights to the concerto from members of the Mendelssohn family residing in Switzerland. Menuhin edited the concerto for performance and had it published by Peters Edition. On 4 February 1952, Menuhin introduced the concerto to a Carnegie Hall audience with a "string Band", conducting the concerto from the violin. Menuhin played the work often in recital, and made three recordings of it. The first was made immediately after the New York premiere, with him conducting the RCA Victor String Orchestra (his conducting debut on record), the second made the following year with Sir Adrian Boult and the Philharmonia Orchestra, and the last in 1971 with Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos. The critics were pleased with the New York premiere. However, the concerto has not established it