In December 1832 and January 1833, Mendelssohn wrote a pair of works for a trio of clarinet, piano, and the now nearly arcane basset horn: the Concert Piece No. 1 in F major, Op. 113, and the Concert Piece No. 2 in D minor, Op. 114. Mendelssohn dispatched these two works immediately upon completion to clarinetist Heinrich Baermann and his son Carl, a basset horn player, who were touring Germany and Russia at the time. As tokens of the composer's personal friendship with the Baermanns (and his desire to help young Carl establish his career as a professional composer), the two Concert Pieces stand as the only compositions for basset horn in Mendelssohn's oeuvre.

The piece under consideration here, the first in Op. 113, is cast in three brief movements. The first, marked Allegro con fuoco, begins and ends with dramatic recitative-like exchanges between the clarinet and basset horn, establishing a vocally oriented approach to melody. The alternately turbulent and triumphant middle section demonstrates Mendelssohn's characteristic knack for creating textural interplay between monodic instrumental lines and piano accompaniment. The Andante middle movement finds the two woodwinds more closely allied, following tranquil melodies in lush, parallel thirds and sixths above a gentle pitter-patter of piano arpeggios. The pensive minor-mode stirrings that open the final movement cast a temporary shadow over the tranquil glow of the slow movement's final strains, but after a few uneasy recitative exchanges and a chromatic buildup, the clouds part for a playful Presto. The woodwinds assume a more extrovert, sometimes even playfully competitive character here, tossing rapid figurations and scales back and forth, facing off with breakneck runs in contrary motion—one imagines the seasoned performer Heinrich Baermann and the young up-and-comer Carl bringing this piece to a rousing close.

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