Piano Street Magazine

World Premiere: Piano Piece in G by Felix Mendelssohn

February 27th, 2014 in Piano Street Site News by | 2 comments

The first edition ever of a newly discovered piece by Mendelssohn was presented by Piano Street on the Music Education Expo in London earlier this month. The Urtext Piano Score and Autograph Manuscript are now available for download:

Mendelssohn: Piano Piece in G, MWV U38 (Urtext Score)

Mendelssohn: Piano Piece in G, MWV U38 (Autograph Manuscript)

Pianist Roberto Prosseda has recorded the piece which is included in his upcoming Decca album, “Mendelssohn: Early and Unpublished Works”.

Mendelssohn Piano piece in g

Roberto Prosseda introduces the piece:

Among the great Romantic composers, Felix Mendelssohn is, unfortunately, largely neglected. This is particularly true regarding his piano output. Today, only some Lieder ohne Worte, the Variations Sérieuses and the Rondo Capriccioso are present in the standard concert repertoire even though Mendelssohn composed more than ten hours of piano music. He published less than a half of it during his lifetime. More than 30 of his piano works are still unpublished, and most of them, including the Klavierstück MWV U38 in G major, stem from his youthful years.

I became familiar with this piece thanks to Dr. Ralf Wehner, whose catalog of Mendelssohn’s works is currently the most up-to-date source for any Mendelssohn research. This catalog also introduced the MWV system, or Mendelssohn Werkvereichnis, that finally assigns precise numbers to each of Mendelssohn’s works. The MWV lists 199 works for piano solo.

The manuscript of the Klavierstück MWV U38 is currently the property of the Nydahl Collection of the Foundation for the Promotion of Music Culture, in Stockholm. The foundation graciously granted permission to publish it.
The handwritten score is undated and has no title. In his catalog, Dr. Wehner guesses that Mendelssohn wrote it in 1822. The main theme comes from a dance movement included in the Finale of Mendelssohn’s Singspiel Die beiden Pädagogen, which he penned the previous year. It is a waltz and is quite similar to Schubert’s works having the same character during the same time period. In its simplicity, this Klavierstück already shows the refined craftsmanship and nuance that remains characteristic of Mendelssohn’s music throughout his life.

I had the privilege of making the first recording of this piece in 2013 as part of Decca’s 3-CD set, which will be released in spring 2014. This disc will also include an additional 30 world premiere recordings of Mendelssohn’s piano works.

Florence, February 2, 2014
Roberto Prosseda

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Comments

  • Halvard Lund says:

    Wonderful when we have a “time travel” like this. Thanks for sharing this article.
    Greetings from Norway

  • Ivorys101 says:

    Amazing what finds there are. I look forward to playing this

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