BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Thursday, December 5, 1822

In Berlin today, another child prodigy makes an appearance. The thirteen-year-old Felix Mendelssohn at a concert mostly devoted to Rossini arias, performs a piano concerto he had composed. Leipzig Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung of January 22, 1823 (Nr. 4 at col. 52). This concerto would be his so-called “Concerto No. 0” in A minor for piano and strings, written earlier this year.

This very early concerto is performed here by John Ogdon, with Neville Marriner conducting the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields: