Search - Felix [1] Mendelssohn :: Mendelssohn: String Quartets, Opp. 13 & 80; Four Pieces, Op. 81

Sombre, stirring Mendelssohn

Ralph Moore | Bishop's Stortford, UK | 12/29/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Like the first Amazon uk reviewer, I ordered this CD on the strength of the BBC Radio 3 "CD Review" recommendation. Having played it several times since I can see why this disc outclassed the competition. The young Elias Quartet play with the perfect balance between verve and poise: the opening of Opus 80 is almost shocking in the savage thwack and thrum of bow on gut; no holding back here in their articulation of Mendelssohn's grief at the loss of his beloved sister, Fanny. This is Mendelssohn not as he is popularly thought of, but rather in a more serious and tormented mode. No "faery fancy", no sentimentality, no "filigree lightness" either - unless you count the fleeting three minute Scherzo in A minor, a stand-alone work from 1847 - this is real "grown-up" music, reminiscent of Schubert's more melancholy effusions and the middle period quartets of Beethoven. This is not a disc for casual listening and repays concentration; it was daring and adventurous of the Elias to choose such a compilation for their first recording as none of the pieces here provides much let-up from the prevailing emotional intensity. Even the comparatively early quartet, Opus 13 (written in response to the news of Beethoven's death when Mendelssohn was already a seasoned composer of 18 and a devotee of the Bonn master's music) is wild and grim in its mood. Nor does the assembly of movements spanning twenty years which constitutes Opus 81 provide much relief; these "Four Pieces" form an interesting bridge between the two quartets themselves separated by twenty years. The sound on this disc is superb, like the playing."