Mendelssohn: String Quartet No. 1 in E flat major, Op. 12

The Strad described the Minetti Quartet’s first release (Haydn HAEN98645) as an “exemplary” recording.

They return with a programme of enchanting quartets by Mendelssohn.

These top musicians have charmed audiences around the world.

Following their successful complete recording of the 15 string quartets by Dmitri Shostakovich, the Mandelring Quartett now embark on their next extensive recording series: Mendelssohn Complete Chamber Music for Strings, including the Octet and the two Quintets (together with the Quartetto di Cremona and Gunter Teuffel), presented on four SACDs in total.

The first volume of this new series features a youthful work by Mendelssohn as well as the early master works, Op. 13 and Op. 12.

Even if Felix Mendelssohn composed far fewer string quartets than Haydn, Beethoven or Schubert, they nonetheless embody a musical romanticism that appears in Novalis’ Hymns and Eichendorff’s Novellas: a whispering within nature, at times with dramatic agitation, permeated by deeply felt chants. And even the quartet in E flat major, written by the 14-year-old pupil of Carl Friedrich Zelter, the Berlin composer and consultant to Goethe, implies that Mendelssohn would imaginatively maintain the musical legacy. This legacy had one name, first and foremost: Ludwig van Beethoven. Following his death in 1827, Mendelssohn composed his first mature quartet, Op. 13, which explores Beethoven’s formal ideas but, entirely romantically, places the song “Ist es wahr?” at its centre. This work, as well as its successor, the quartet Op. 12 (the chronology of publication is the reason for the reverse numbering), proves to be formally highly advanced and reveals Mendelssohn as a sophisticated musical narrator – a facet which also attracted criticism from his contemporaries.

Two works completed before the composer turned 23. Schumann asserted: "he is the Mozart of the 19th century, he is the brightest composer of the age, and he comprehends, with finest humour, the contradictions of our time more clearly than anyone, so that he is the first to reconcile them".

This recording by the splendid Gabrieli String Quartet makes a welcome return to the catalogue, and now at ‘Classics’ price. There is little competition for this programme.

The well-known British string quartet was founded in 1967 by Kenneth Sillito, who led the ensemble for some twenty years before passing the responsibility to John Georgiadis, at which point the Quartet entered into an exclusive contract with Chandos and made a number of fine recordings. It toured widely abroad and in the UK and was noted for its well-balanced performances. ‘I know this is a disc to be enjoyed again and again. The sound is simply flawless’, wrote the Newcastle Evening Chronicle.

Mendelssohn wrote his first two string quartets before his twenty-first birthday and they are typical of the mastery with which Mendelssohn approached the romantic style prevailing in the early nineteenth century.

Mendelssohn’s music will be amongst the highlights of Cavi-music's new release schedule in 2009. They start with a brand new recording of two early string quartets; String Quartet No. 1 in E flat major and String Quartet No. 2 in A minor along with Felix' sister Fanny's String Quartet in E flat major, played by the young international Asasello Quartet.

The String Quartet in E flat major featured on this CD is known as opus 12. However, it is actually Felix Mendelssohn’s third quartet, and was composed two years after opus 13 during a long and successful visit to England in 1829. By far the best-known movement is the Canzonetta, which is also frequently performed as an independent work. The quartet is cyclic, and themes heard in previous movements make their reappearance in the finale. Mendelssohn composed his quintet opus 18 at the age of seventeen and his admiration for his idol Beethoven is once again evident in the finale where the opening displays clear similarities with the final movement of Beethoven’s quartet opus 18 no 1.

The Matangi Quartet was founded in 1999 by four young musicians then studying at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague and the Conservatory of Rotterdam. In 2003 the group completed the two-year, full-time course at the Netherlands String Quartet Academy under the direction of Stefan Metz (cellist of the Orlando Quartet). Whilst at the Academy, the Matangi Quartet also had the opportunity to take lessons from international renowned musicians, including the members of the Amadeus Quartet. In addition the quartet have received intensive mentoring for several years from the violist of Schönberg Quartet, Henk Guittart. In 2002 they were awarded the prestigious Kersjes van de Groenekan Award, an annual prize awarded to exceptional chamber music talent in the Netherlands, and in 2008 the quartet won third prize at the International Joseph Joachim Chamber Music Competition in Weimar. The group is joined in the String Quintet by Viola player Edith van Moergastel.