Felix Mendelssohn wrote his first violin concerto long before his E minor concerto from 1845: as a 13-year-old in his parents' home in Berlin. The young Felix drew on two sources for this work from 1822: the art of his admired violin teacher Eduard Rietz and the music of Johann Sebastian Bach.

Mendelssohn's early fondness for concertos and concert pieces in the key of D minor stemmed from the latter's D minor Piano Concerto, which he played with great enthusiasm. He wrote three D minor concer...