Mendelssohn: String Quartet No. 2 in A minor, Op. 13

“The excellent Leipzig Quartet, with their warm, richly blended tone and natural finesse, give superbly polished accounts of these delightful works. Their lightness of touch and elegance are balanced by great (but not exaggerated) depth of feeling.” Penguin Guide, 2011 edition

“Since Grieg owed much to Schumann, coupling their quartets seems a good idea. These G minor and A minor Quartets were written when the composers were in their thirties, although Grieg was a few years older. Yet it's his work that sounds more youthfully passionate, while the Schumann is a rather self-conscious homage to his friend Mendelssohn and classical models.
The Petersens invest the Grieg G minor Quartet with gravitas and are skilful in linking the disparate sections of its structure. Their recording has a natural balance and an impressively wide dynamic rang; it also copes well with Grieg's forceful, semi-orchestral string writing.
The whole performance has vigour and tenderness in good proportion, and a truly Scandinavian feeling. The unfinished F major Quartet is another sensitive performance and the work sounds no more incomplete than Schubert's Unfinished Symphony.
The Schumann is no less enjoyable; the artists are fully inside his idiom and make a consistently beautiful and meaningful sound. The Shanghai Quartet's brightly lit account of the Mendelssohn suggests a rich store of interpretative potential. Theirs is a sizzling, multi-coloured performance. The Grieg coupling is, if anything, even finer, with an Allegro molto first movement that truly is ed agitato, a warming Romanze and a superbly characterised Intermezzo.
It's richly recorded.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010