ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors look at innovative concertos that Schumann championed, by Mendelssohn, Wilhelm Taubert, Carl Lasekk, and William Sterndale Bennett. The overview of Schumann's reviews of piano concertos must begin as early as 1835, when he compiled a “Borsenbericht,” in Hans Lenneberg's words, “a sample report on the musical market-place, a kind of best-seller list,” for a supplement to volume two of his Neue Zeitschrift. The large role given the orchestra, the warmth of Mendelssohn's performance, and the unusual form are features also mentioned by Fink in his front-page review for the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung. The dismembering of the motivic elements of a thematic phrase so that they can be used ad infinitum in nonthematic areas is a recognizably Beethovenian, or classical technique. The remainder of Bennett's movement follows the model of a virtuoso concerto, yet it does not sound like one.
