Symphoniker Hamburg / Veronika Eberle / Han-Na Chang

Thinking of forests in the finale of Mendelssohn’s immortally beautiful Violin Concerto in E minor is a real recommendation inasmuch as the fairies, will-o’-the-wisps and kind-hearted gnomes romping about in it are comparatively harmless creatures. Composed between 1838 and 1844 for his friend Ferdinand David, concertmaster of Leipzig’s Gewandhausorchester, it was intended to be a brilliant piece (»stilo moltissimo concertantissimo«). Mendelssohn joked back that the soloist’s entire first movement would consist of a single high E. In the end, the two Hamburg natives were extremely happy with the result.