 Mendelssohn probably made his first public concert appearance at age 9 , when he participated in a chamber music concert accompanying a horn duo . He was also a prolific composer from an early age . As an adolescent , his works were often performed at home with a private orchestra for the associates of his wealthy parents amongst the intellectual elite of Berlin . Between the ages of 12 and 14 , Mendelssohn wrote 12 string symphonies for such concerts . These works were ignored for over a century , but are now recorded and occasionally played in concerts . He wrote his first published work , a piano quartet , by the time he was 13 . It was probably Abraham Mendelssohn who procured the publication of Mendelssohn 's early piano quartet by the house of Schlesinger . In 1824 , the 15 @-@ year @-@ old wrote his first symphony for full orchestra ( in C minor , Op. 11 ) . 
