Although a fine virtuoso pianist himself, German composer Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) composed his Rondo brillant, Op. 29, for his former teacher and later colleague Ignaz Moscheles. Written in 1834 when Mendelssohn was 25, the Rondo brillant is his most technically difficult work for piano and orchestra, demanding strength, dexterity, and stamina from the pianist, all characteristics Moscheles had demonstrated in his own virtuoso works for piano and orchestra. Without introduction and with an almost abrupt ending, Mendelssohn's Rondo brillant seems concerned more with pianistic virtuosity than with compositional virtuosity. With its truly brilliant main theme, its charming but still driven secondary themes, and its galloping rhythms in the orchestra, the Rondo brillant literally gives the impression of the pianist as rider mounted on a racing stallion. Although the virtuosity of the Rondo brillant was soon surpassed by the super-virtuosity of Liszt and the later Romantics, Mendelssohn's work remains more delightful than many of the more elaborate works.

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