Mendelssohn: The Concertos for 2 Pianos

Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809-1845) was a genius of extraordinary stature. He had matured as a composer by the age of sixteen (1825, the year of the Octet for Strings) and by then had long since proved himself a child prodigy on both piano and violin, an outstanding athlete (and particularly strong swimmer), a talented poet (Goethe was his childhood friend and confidant), a gift for languages, a watercolorist, and a philosopher. He excelled in virtually any field that could capture his attention long enough, but it was music that most of all set his creative imagination in motion.