Concerto for Violin and String Orchestra in D minor, MWV O3

Mendelssohn wrote this concerto in 1822, at thirteen, for his violin teacher and close friend Eduard Rietz, who led the string ensemble that played at the family's Sunday concerts in Berlin. It stayed unpublished and unperformed for well over a century; the manuscript passed through private hands until Yehudi Menuhin acquired access to it and gave the first performance in 1952, afterwards recording it and adding it to his repertoire. The scoring is for solo violin and strings alone, and the model is plainly Viotti and the French school rather than the Beethoven concerto.