 Mendelssohn's difficulties probably stemmed from a desire to excel in the new work, written expressly for the Birmingham Music Festival, and thereby impress English audiences.The arduousness of the task is attested to by the fact that more autograph sources for the concerto exist than for any other composition he wrote for piano and orchestra.Work on the piece lasted from April through to early September 1837, although his progress was significant enough that he felt confident enough to mention the work to his publisher, Breitkopf & Härtel in early August, having shortly before completed an autograph copy of both the piano part and orchestral score.