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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Mendelssohn & Schumann: String Quartets
| | | (also available to download from $10.50) | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Mendelssohn: String Quartets. Vol. 1
“Their playing is very much like a concert performance -exciting, projected, perhaps a bit risky.” American Record Guide | | | (also available to download from $6.00) | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Mendelssohn: Complete Chamber Music for Strings 2
The second volume of 'Mendelssohn - Complete Chamber Music for Strings', four SACDs in total, is dedicated to compositions from the last third of the composer’s life. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy did not compose his six mature string quartets continuously, but at certain turning points in his musical life and biography. Whilst in his youth, the study of Bach and Beethoven was of major importance; later on his encounter with the exceptional violinist Ferdinand David inspired him, between 1837 and 1839, to compose his three Quartets Op. 44 (numbers 1 & 2 on this SACD). They document the mature, formally confident Mendelssohn summing up his instrumental oeuvre: virtuoso composition (especially for David’s violin playing), full of colours and formal stimuli, and of romantic attitude. Just under a decade later, a completely different Mendelssohn appears in the territory of the string quartet, historically dominated by the mature works of Beethoven. Mendelssohn’s Quartet in F minor, Op. 80, seems to be more of an outcry than a cultivated piece of chamber music, triggered by the death of his beloved sister Fanny in May 1847. Mendelssohn, completely devastated by her death, almost lost the ability to compose but mastered the crisis by finding a new tonal language, raw and highly charged, hitherto unknown to him. Tragically, Mendelssohn could not develop this course, and one and a half months after completing his quartet, the 38-year-old suffered a deadly stroke at the beginning of November, 1847. “kindl[es] a sneaking suspicion that this will be a cycle to collect disc-by-disc and treasure as definitive once it's complete...There is a constant sense of their conviction here...the Mandelrings are consummately mature in how they keep [Mendelssohn's] ebullient, youthful emotion under control through the perfection of their tuning and modesty in their phrasing” Gramophone Magazine, February 2013 “The molto allegro vivace [of Op. 44 No. 1] begins like a pale echo of the great octet’s similar opening. The outstanding Mandelring Quartett, however, play both it and the E minor with the utmost conviction, and their account of Op 80 does justice to that harrowing expression of Mendelssohn’s despair at the death of his beloved sister Fanny.” Sunday Times, 18th November 2012 “A top German ensemble which has made acclaimed recordings of Shostakovich, Schubert and Brahms, the group is not yet well known here but should be. The players combine technical brilliance with beautifully controlled dynamic contrast and gleaming clarity” The Observer, 25th November 2012 | | | (also available to download from $10.50) | Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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| |  | Mendelssohn: String Quartets Nos. 3 & 5
In the years 1837-38, Mendelssohn was at the height of his humanist glory, concurrently violinist, violist, pianist, composer, conductor (of the Gewandhaus in Leipzig), still a painter in his already rare spare time, and a newlywed… 'At the moment, everything comes so easily and so nicely under my pen', he wrote, this exemplified by the Opus 44 Quartets with their radiant, virtuoso allegros and slow movements tinged with nostalgia-irresistible ‘songs without words’ for strings. “Among the strengths of this new disc from the Zemlinsky Quartet are the sense of Mendelssohn's ear for the dramatic and the sheer tautness of his writing...Other quartets may be more indulgent in Mendelssohn's slower-paced movements...but there's a transparency and a unanimity of purpose in the Zemlinsky's readings that provide ample compensation” Gramophone Magazine, January 2011 | | | Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days. |
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| |  | Mendelssohn - String Quartets Volume 3
Praised by Gramophone for the “deep feeling” of its playing on Volume 1 (8570001) the New Zealand String Quartet here completes its recording of all the Mendelssohn Quartets. The composer’s first essay in the form, a strikingly accomplished work by a fourteen year- old, is presented alongside his personal favourite, the D major, Op. 44, No. 1. This last of the three Op. 44 Quartets to be written is notable for its suave Minuet and a particularly expressive Andante. In the Op. 81 Theme and Variations and Scherzo from the last year of his life melancholy and magic meet in typical Mendelssohnian manner. “The New Zealand String Quartet completes its impressive Mendelssohn recordings for Naxos back at the beginning with this Opus "0" work, played with the same style and devotion it brings to the maturer Quartet in D major, Op 44, No 1. Such warm, intelligent playing makes this three-volume series one to recommend.” The Observer, 30th May 2010 | | | (also available to download from $6.00) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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| |  | Amedeo Modigliani Quartet play Mendelssohn, Schumann & Wolf
Amedeo Modigliani Quartet "an enviable level of accomplishment with beautiful tonal quality, remarkably well matched, allied to impressive dexterity and precision. The Italian Serenade shows the group at their best - a lively, elegant performance that highlights all the quicksilver changes of harmony, rhythm and tone colour, well served by the intimate, mellifluous recording." Gramophone “…beautiful tonal quality, remarkably well matched, allied to impressive dexterity and precision. The Italian Serenade shows the group at their best - a lively, elegant performance that highlights all the quicksilver changes of harmony, rhythm and tone colour, well served by the intimate, mellifluous recording.” Gramophone Magazine, October 2006 | | | Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days. |
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| |  | Mendelssohn - String Quartets
| | | (also available to download from $10.50) | Usually despatched in 4 - 5 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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| |  | Mendelssohn - Complete String Quartets Volume 2
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| |  | Mendelssohn Octet
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