Mendelssohn: Complete String Quartets, Vol. 2 Classical Alpha

Mendelssohn: Complete String Quartets, Vol. 2

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AJ 0931

Mendelssohn: Complete String Quartets, Vol. 2

Label Catalogue Number:
ALPHA931

Release Date: February 2023
Originally recorded in 2022

Genre:
Classical

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After a first volume praised by the press, including an Editor’s Choice in Gramophone, the Quatuor Van Kuijk concludes its complete recording of Mendelssohn’s string quartets with op.44 nos. 2 and 3 and the Quartet op.80, which bears the mark of the sudden death in 1847 of his sister Fanny, to whom he was very close, at the age of only forty-two. As Stéphane Goldet writes in the booklet: ‘The act of resistance that is the Quartet op.80, written in a single burst during the summer of 1847, its overwhelming “No, not that, not her!” shouted by four instruments for twenty-five minutes, was to be the composer’s last completed work. The four movements of this “confrontation with grief” (Bernard Fournier) in F minor are to be played con dolore, although that marking never appears in the score.’ She goes on to quote Brigitte François-Sappey: ‘This “Requiem for Fanny” might be called “Death and the Young Woman”. As in Schubert’s last two quartets, the strings shiver in tremolos over ostinato pedals, like death knells.’

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Reviews

International Classical Music Award 2024 Nomination in the Chamber Music category

International Classical Music Awards 2024

“Both Op.44 quartets receive outstanding performances, but the real gem is Op.80 …the performance here being one of quite stunning emotional impact and remarkable sensitivity and intensity… it’s difficult to imagine any playing coming close to this.”

Terry Robbins – thewholenote.com – 7 April 2023

“…The performances themselves richly fulfil the expectations aroused by Vol.1 lean-toned, fiery, ever responsive to Mendelssohn’s distinctive brand of restlessness and agitation, yet never short-changing the pools of mystery and tenderness in, say, the outer movements of Op 44 No 3… “

Richard Wigmore – Gramophone magazine – April 2023

“Passion and virtuosity in abundance from this impressive quartet.”

David Threasher – The Strad – April 2023

***** Coup de cœur

Fabienne Bouvet – Classica magazine (France) – April 2023

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