ABSTRACT
This chapter hardly separates Mendelssohn's demeanor and manner of playing from the nature of the Concerto and even the process of its composition. Schumann shuns the melodic decoration and flashy passagework that came to be associated with the concerto, and that so sharply differentiated its alternating thematic and passagework areas. In the Concertsatz Schumann begins a sequential motion that rises stepwise in the bass. Certain structural features of the movement can be seen in other concertos of the 1830s, most notably the elimination of a full tutti exposition, and the truncation of the recapitulation. As it now stands, the Concertsatz is an exciting experiment, one that is far removed from the conventionally virtuosic F major concerto movement of Schumann's youth, and that is a clear harbinger of ideas which are basic to his later symphonic works.
