Few works in the violin repertoire inspire as much devotion – and as many recordings – as Felix Mendelssohn‘s Violin Concerto in E minor.
A cornerstone of the Romantic violin canon, this concerto balances elegance, virtuosity, and lyricism. Its popularity has shifted from the concert hall to YouTube, where it has garnered millions of views.
Today, we’re looking at the top eight most popular performances of the Mendelssohn concerto on YouTube as of mid 2026, listed in reverse order.
Felix Mendelssohn
From legendary virtuosos and once-in-a-generation prodigies to crossover figures who built massive online audiences, these performances of Mendelssohn’s concerto reveal how the concerto continues to resonate across generations.
Julia Fischer
2 million views
Julia Fischer is an extraordinary and well-rounded artist.
She is both a virtuoso violinist and pianist, capable of playing a Saint-Saëns violin concerto in the first half of a concert and the Grieg piano concerto in the second.
Her violin playing here is clean and silvery, never sentimental, and she shapes Mendelssohn’s long lines with an ease and sense of natural inevitability.
Brett Yang
2.1 million views
This performance has the most unique backstory of any performance on this list.
Brett Yang is best known as one half of TwoSet Violin, a two-man classical music comedy act popular on YouTube.
He and his fellow conservatory student Eddy Chen began the channel in 2013. Neither was planning a career as an international soloist, but they became full-time content creators, and worldwide fame followed.
They began celebrating major subscriber milestones by performing major concertos during livestreams.
When they hit four million subscribers, they collaborated with the Singapore Symphony to livestream Yang’s performance of the Mendelssohn concerto with the orchestra.
Sarah Chang
3.5 million views
Sarah Chang was one of the most famous prodigies in violin history.
She was born in Philadelphia in December 1980 and began playing the violin on her fourth birthday. When she was five, she auditioned for the Juilliard School by playing the Bruch concerto.
When she was thirteen, the elderly Yehudi Menuhin, who had himself been one of the great violin prodigies of the century, called her “the most wonderful, perfect, ideal violinist that I have ever heard.”
This nationally broadcast performance with the New York Philharmonic dates from 1995, the year she turned fifteen.
Her poise and assurance here are remarkable; it feels like she’s been soloing for years…perhaps because by this point, she had! Her playing is incredibly natural. She attacks the score with a youthful fearlessness and ferocity.
Karolina Protsenko
3.8 million views
Karolina Protsenko was born in Kyiv, Ukraine, in 2008. When she was six, her family moved to California, where she began performing on the streets of Santa Monica with her family.
Her YouTube channel took off when she was still a child. Today, her main channel has 8.74 million subscribers, and her videos have been watched over 2 billion times.
She began making appearances on American media, including The Ellen DeGeneres Show in 2019 and The Kelly Clarkson Show in 2022.
This performance of the Mendelssohn concerto was uploaded in December 2023, when Protsenko was fifteen. She performs with the Orchestra Nova LA.
Janine Jansen
4 million views
Janine Jansen is one of the most admired violin soloists active today. She was born in 1978 in the Netherlands to a musical family and has since made a major career.
Features of her playing include delicacy, lyricism, and a searing tone. Her playing often feels earnest and conversational.
All of those qualities are on full display in this performance, given with the BBC Symphony Orchestra during the First Night of the Proms in 2005.
This video also features program notes that are synced along with the performance, which makes it an interesting entry point for people new to classical music to follow what is going on.
Itzhak Perlman
5.7 million views
Itzhak Perlman was born in 1945, making him the oldest violinist on this list.
This video features two performances spliced together: one from 1983 with the New York Philharmonic, and another from 2011 with the San Francisco Symphony, creating a fascinating document of how Perlman’s interpretation has evolved over the years.
Perlman’s expansive tone and the deeply felt humanity of his playing more generally combine to lend his performance a nostalgic warmth.
It is also a joy to see the ease with which he plays the instrument: in both performances, he is calm, confident, and utterly relaxed while still remaining totally engaged.
Hilary Hahn
6.3 million views
Hilary Hahn was born in 1979 in Lexington, Virginia, and grew up outside of Baltimore. She began playing the violin a few weeks before her fourth birthday.
When she was ten, she was accepted into the Curtis Conservatory of Music in Philadelphia, where she studied for nine years.
Hilary Hahn’s Mendelssohn performance is a benchmark for modern violin virtuosity. Her articulation is precise and her tempos carefully judged, and her emotional restraint is cool, calm, and collected.
Unlike the other performances on this list, this one offers a scrolling score at the bottom, allowing a non-violinist to better visualise what’s going on with the music.
Ray Chen
7 million views
Topping the list at 7 million views is Ray Chen, whose performance blends virtuosity and charisma.
Chen’s playing is electric: his technical firepower is matched by his expressive commitment.
He was born in Taiwan in 1989 and grew up in Brisbane, Australia. In 2008, he won the first prize in the senior division at the Yehudi Menuhin International Competition. Two years later, he graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music.
Chen has become a fixture on YouTube thanks to his years of investment in the platform. Not only does he post performance videos like this Mendelssohn, but he also posts comedic sketches and behind-the-scenes glimpses of what life is like for a virtuoso violinist.
Conclusion
Taken together, these eight most popular performances of the Mendelssohn violin concerto on YouTube have it all: the polish of Julia Fischer, the fearlessness of Sarah Chang, the warmth and humanity of Itzhak Perlman, the delicacy of Janine Jansen, the precision of Hilary Hahn, and the sheer charisma of social media stars like Yang, Protsenko, and Chen.
Each version highlights a different facet of Mendelssohn’s concerto, proving the work’s enduring ability to showcase a violin soloist’s talent, technique, and personality.
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