Search - Felix [1] Mendelssohn :: Mendelssohn: String Quartets Nos. 1 & 2

Reissue of a Classic Gabrieli Quartet Mendelssohn CD

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 08/22/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I well remember when this CD first came out in the early 1990s. (It is now reissued with a new cover but the same booklet notes. And at mid-price.) I had been somewhat dismissive up to that point of Mendelssohn's output of string quartets -- don't ask me why -- but I got this one and was swept away by not only the playing -- very precise, very conscious of the intertwinings of the contrapuntal voices -- but more than that by the quartets themselves. They were written when Mendelssohn was twenty-one (and in reverse order to their numbers [and their opus numbers]) and are as 'romantic' as anything he ever wrote as far as I know. The Second Quartet has a three-note motif (C#, B, D) taken from his song 'Frage' (the three notes are for the words 'Ist es wahr?' ['Is it true?'] whose text in the song goes on 'Is it true that you are waiting for me in the arbor by the vine-clad wall?' And the lover's feelings are evident throughout the quartet. The fourth movement has that desperate sounding recitative (we have no words for it, alas) over the throbbing chords of the lower strings. The quartet also includes some of Mendelssohn's finest 'fairy music' in its third movement, Intermezzo. The Gabrielis give this elegant but feelingful quartet a wonderful reading.



The First Quartet opens with a passage that sounds like it was lifted from Beethoven's Op. 74 'Harp' Quartet; it's even in the same key. The first movement is a marvel of melodic and contrapuntal invention. The second movement, labelled 'Canzonetta' ('little song'), is a dancing quasi-scherzo. The Andante espressivo is more song than the 'canzonetta', strangely enough. It is broadly expansive, almost hymnic, but is interrupted by an agitated recitative for the first violin before restoring its earlier calm. It leads without pause into the finale which is dramatic and almost feels like a narrative of some intensity. It ends softly with reminiscences of the first movement's ending. Again, the Gabrielis give an elegant yet intense performance.



The booklet indicates that the CD was digitally remastered but I don't hear much difference between this and its earlier version. Sound is quite good.



Scott Morrison"