Why the lackluster response to Beethoven's Violin Concerto when it premiered in 1806? Was the violinist showboating and unprepared to play or was the piece too complex and difficult for that era's audience to appreciate? Almost 40 years later, Felix Mendelssohn recused the piece from the dustbin of history and conducted a performance in London with Joseph Joachim, an 11-year-old boy, as soloist. Only then did the world recognize yet another work of Beethoven's genius that pushed the limits of the form.

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