Minguet Quartett - String Quartets Vol 1: No 2 Op 13 & No 6 Op 80 - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Felix Mendelssohn composed his three String Quartets op. 44 dedicated to Sweden's crown prince and later king Oscar I during the years from 1837 to 1838. In 1840 Mendelssohn, who was regarded as an absolute perfectionist, revised these InchTrois Grands Quatuors,Inch which he judged to be »some hundred times better« than all of his previous works. Vol. 3 presents the first two quartets from op. 44. The first, the last of the series to be composed, belongs to the genre of the Inchquatuor brilliantInch - a type in which it is the first violin that shines. Already the introductory InchAllegro vivaceInch is like a concerto movement by reason of the fact that the first violin is mostly accompanied by the three other instruments, often even with orchestral tremolos and timpani imitations in the violoncello. The second quartet, the first to be composed in this series of three, conveys an elegiac and passionate tone and displays expressive passages together with powerful accents.

Here, cpo's complete edition of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy's string quartets in gripping interpretations by the Minguet Quartet continues with Vol. 2. At the young age of twelve Mendelssohn composed Twelve Fugues for String Quartet (1821), and in his String Quartet in E flat major composed shortly thereafter a fugue forms the finale. Such contrapuntal pieces pointing to Johann Sebastian Bach were regarded as proofs of compositional proficiency. However, this work was in no way an object of study merely copying classical models. The adagio alone with it's melancholy, emphatically intensified melody and quartet texture finely spread over all the instruments radiates a new and very unique sound magic. What is remarkable about Mendelssohn's Quartet op. 12 is the lyrical character of the first movement, which quite obviously engages in dialogue with Beethoven's late Quartet op. 127 in the same key. Of course the individual tone of the composer, who was a mere twenty years old at the time, is also very clear. His Four Pieces for String Quartet are not a homogeneous work, even if after his death they came to be known as his String Quartet No. 7 op. 81. The four movements are from different periods of time the variation movement and the scherzo from 1847, the year of his death, the capriccio from 1843, and the concluding fugue from as early as 1827. The stylistic aspect shifts from movement to movement. Album Tracks 1. String Quartet Op. 12 2. Vier Stücke FÜR Streichquartett Op. 81 = Four Pieces for String Quartet 3. String Quartet in E Flat Major (S12)

The Minguet Quartet concludes it's four-volume set here, which now includes all of Mendelssohn's string quartets - not only the seven works by the fortunate Felix, who had a musical career open to him from childhood, but also the only quartet by his older sister Fanny, for whom music was only ever allowed 'to be an adornment, never the foundation of life,' as their father Abraham decreed with the declamation of a patriarch. And once again, the question arises as to why it is permissible to shackle unmistakeable talent with the chains of convention. This unique work by the then 30-year old composer soars to masterful heights with it's individual form and exuberant emotions. It is an ideal counterpart to the classical mood of the E flat major quartet with which Felix completed his Opus 44 four years later.