 Mendelssohn also worked closely with his protégé , the British composer and pianist William Sterndale Bennett ( whom he had first heard in London in 1833 when Bennett was 17 ) , both in London and Leipzig , where Bennett appeared throughout the 1836 / 1837 season . Mendelssohn 's oratorio Elijah was commissioned by and premiered at the Birmingham Triennial Music Festival on 26 August 1846 , composed to a German text translated into English by William Bartholomew , who authored and translated many of Mendelssohn 's works during his time in England . On his last visit to Britain in 1847 , Mendelssohn was the soloist in Beethoven 's Piano Concerto No. 4 and conducted his own Scottish Symphony with the Philharmonic Orchestra before the Queen and Prince Albert . 
