Mendelssohn: String Quintet No. 2 in B flat major, Op. 87

Continuing their survey of Mendelssohn’s String Quartets, in Mendelssohn the Leipzig musicians are in their element: sovereign instrumental command, consummate sound design, and precision teamwork perfected in detail offer a dynamic listening experience in a special class of its own.

Mendelssohn was without doubt the most precociously gifted composer the world has ever known: not even Mozart produced ‘mature’ masterpieces while still in his teens. He was also a double prodigy on the violin and piano, an exceptional athlete, a talented poet (Goethe was a childhood friend and confidant), multi-linguist, watercolorist and philosopher. He excelled at virtually anything which could hold his attention for long enough, although it was music above all which activated his creative imagination.

The two String Quintets were composed at opposite ends of his short career. No 1 was written in 1826, soon after the completion of the Octet and E major Piano Sonata and before the Overture to ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, when Mendelssohn was still only seventeen. He later substituted a slow movement in memory of his friend the violinist Eduard Rietz, and it was this revised version of the Quintet that was published in Bonn the same year and is recorded here.

Quintet No 2 dates from 1845 (when Mendelssohn was still only thirty-six), a year before his triumphant success with Elijah in Birmingham and just two years prior to his premature death.

The Aronowitz Ensemble’s second CD, recorded in the ideal acoustics of the Wigmore Hall, comprises three of our favourite works: Mendelssohn's ebullient second string quintet and Dvorák's incomparably radiant second piano quintet are perfectly complemented by Martin Suckling’s To See the Dark Between, which conjures brilliant, unique colours from our full septet line-up - a combination for which, to the best of our knowledge, no work existed prior to the Aronowitz Ensemble's formation. Jointly commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Society and the Wigmore Hall in 2010, Martin’s work is here given its premiere recording.

This is rather an unusual form as few composers are tempted by a violin and piano partnership adjudicated by the orchestra! On listening to this release you can hear how well this partnership works with the exquisite playing of Anje Weithaas and Alexander Lonquich accompanied by the beautifully balanced Camerata Bern.

This Bruch String Quintet is a recent discovery. It was composed in 1918 when Bruch was 80 years old and the score and parts were copied out by Bruch’s daughter-in-law Gertrude. These parts disappeared and re-emerged in the hands of a private collector in the 1980s. They were auctioned in 2006 to another collector and only then became accessible.

The Quartet, written by a gifted 18 year-old, plus the quintet with two violas (1845), with its pre-Brahmsian breadth of phrase, alternates splendour akin to the Violin Concerto.

Mendelssohn’s chamber music is often overshadowed by his larger orchestral works and is rarely performed. The two works featured on this timely new release on CPO, brought out to celebrate Mendelssohn’s bicentenary, occupy an important place in the history of the string quintet.

Operating entirely in the tradition established by Mozart, Mendelssohn wrote his quintets for two violins, two violas, and one violoncello. The two String Quintets were composed at opposite ends of his career.

Quintet No. 1 was written in 1826 when Mendelssohn was only seventeen, whilst Quintet No. 2 dates from 1845, just two years prior to his premature death. The second quintet exhibits greater formal control and a character reminiscent of orchestral music.

The quintets are performed by the internationally renowned Mannheimer String Quartet. Having been awarded the German Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Prize they are well qualified interpreters.

“The Mannheim String Quartet play this rewarding music with fire and commitment, rhythmically very lively and with impressive unanimity of attack…” International Record Review on the Mannheimer String Quartet