BaL 24.11.18 - Mendelssohn: String Quartet no. 2 in A minor Op.13

[Richard Barrett]

Thanks Ardcarp and Micky. I've heard the Octet a few times but it didn't make such an impression; however, now I think I'm ready to listen to it differently. I will certainly listen to the Hausmusik recording, their Mozart quintets are a favourite of mine.

[vinteuil]

Re HIP Mendelssohn. I recently got a disc of his Complete Cello Works played on not just an original instrument but the original instrument. The Fondazione Walter Stauffer in Cremona lent them the cello once owned by Lise Cristiani, who was the 18-year-old dedicatee of the Lied ohne Worte op 109 and who played the work on that cello, accompanied by the composer, at its first performance in Leipzig in 1845. I have read that Lise (1827-1853) was the "first female cellist of note" and took it with her on her "extensive 40 concert 20,000 kilometre tour through Siberia!" - the trip seems to have helped see her off at an early age.). It is the first time the instrument has been recorded and it certainly makes a lovely sound.

... it is nice, isn't it? It also features in the big hänssler box :

http://amzn.eu/d/iMZ2HdA

The 20,000 km tour through Siberia may have led to her early death : I wonder if it did much good to the 'cello either...


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[MickyD]

Thanks Ardcarp and Micky. I've heard the Octet a few times but it didn't make such an impression; however, now I think I'm ready to listen to it differently. I will certainly listen to the Hausmusik recording, their Mozart quintets are a favourite of mine.

Yes, don't hesitate, Richard...it's an excellent bargain. I must do the reverse and get hold of their Mozart quintets!

[MickyD]

Talking of the cello and piano pieces, this is also a very agreeable recording, if you can still get your hands on a copy:

[Richard Barrett]

Yes, don't hesitate, Richard...it's an excellent bargain. I must do the reverse and get hold of their Mozart quintets!

Listening now. The quartet does have a warmer and more blended sound than either Eroica or Chiaroscuro, I think that's largely down to the more spacious recording. I have the impression that the Hausmusik players are a little less wont to emphasise the piece's debt to Beethoven than others, although I can't put my finger exactly on why I hear it like that.

[kea]

There's also a recording of the first two quartets by the Quatuor Mosaïques although I don't know if it's still in print—it is generally my go-to although I am also a big fan of the Hausmusik.

[MickyD]

Listening now. The quartet does have a warmer and more blended sound than either Eroica or Chiaroscuro, I think that's largely down to the more spacious recording. I have the impression that the Hausmusik players are a little less wont to emphasise the piece's debt to Beethoven than others, although I can't put my finger exactly on why I hear it like that.

Good to hear your views, Richard. It's that spacious recording which appeals to me, though I realise it's not to everyone's taste. The piece which really sold their collection to me is the first movement of the first quintet - I find it sublime.

[Bryn]

Talking of the cello and piano pieces, this is also a very agreeable recording, if you can still get your hands on a copy:

Also to be found in the Florilegium "Classical and Early Romantic" boxed set, which also has lots of other goodies, including the 32 Beethoven keyboard sonatas with Opus number, played on instruments from the Colt Collection, by Malcolm Binns (the first complete set on historical instruments).

[MickyD]

Oh, how I wish Decca would release those complete Beethoven sonatas by Binns in a single box set, Bryn!

[Richard Barrett]

Good to hear your views, Richard. It's that spacious recording which appeals to me, though I realise it's not to everyone's taste.

I like it. I've listened to the Octet twice today, and now I've branched out into Brüggen conducting the symphonies - his first recordings, I hasten to add; the more recent ones on Glossa take "spacious recording" to another level entirely, they sound as if someone forgot to put the microphones in the same room as the players...

[jayne lee wilson]

Did someone mention Mendelssohn Symphonies?
Easy to overlook a remarkable symphonic recording of 4 and 5....

https://www.qobuz.com/gb-en/album/mendelssohn-symphonies-n-4-5-felix-mendelssohn-bartholdy/0822189003517

....all the HIPPs characteristics (and period instruments) you could wish for in outstanding, thrilling sound and performance. There's nothing quite like it.

In a BaL on No.5 a while ago, this was a close 2nd to Thomas Fey and the Heidelbergers (excellent cycle), but I still prefer it. My shelves are packed with Mendelssohn recordings, but this is still the best "single issue" of all - my No.1 all-time Mendelssohn album, especially of No.5!....

MDG, with their usual audiophile sound (and lack of availability to stream, sadly) have a wonderful, again rather obscure set from the Musikkollegium Winterthur (HIPPs, modern instruments) of the complete symphonies, with various conductors (Zehetmair 1&5, Boyd 2, Holliger 3 &4).... a huge bonus is the rarely recorded 1833-4 revision of 4 - excellent for a game of spot the difference....

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dpopular&field-keywords=mendelssohn+musikkollegium

The Holliger disc is another top choice; just as insightful as his Audite Schumann series...but warmer, more involving than those.
Any of these, or the recent COE/Yannick Nézet-Séguin cycle on DG, will get you far, far beyond the hefty over-Romanticised assumptions of Karajan., Abbado etc etc....

Just out, haven't heard it yet, oddly absent from Qobuz so far....

http://www.eclassical.com/performers/brautigam-ronald/mendelssohn-piano-concertos-1.html

1830 Pleyel, period instruments... Christmas present for the Barrett...!

***
AS for Op.13, I was disappointed with the Chiaroscuros... as a huge admirer of their more recent Haydn releases, I found this too constrained both tonally and expressively - too unvaried both rhythmically, and in their shaping of the line.
My heart remains in Leipzig, precisely because they don't lay it on thick .... there's always a purity and simplicity to their intonation and their articulation, no rhetorical phrase or flourish, which serves the music (as in their remarkable Schumann Quartet set ) perfectly. No, it isn't HIPPs; but in their case, it really doesn't matter.

I'll try to hear the Elias Op.13 later, insomnia allowing....

[MickyD]

Continuing the HIP theme, I absolutely love these gutsy discs from The Hanover Band. The 3rd and 4th symphonies come over well, and Christopher Kite plays an 1825 Haschka instrument in the First Piano Concerto - it's thrilling. Mind you, you will need to love those cavernous Nimbus recordings!

[gurnemanz]

More HIP Mendelssohn precocity on Teldec discs of the String Symphonies and two early Concertos from Concerto Köln. The composer also painted the picture on the box's cover.

[Richard Barrett]

I do like to listen to those String Symphonies now and again - I was attracted to them by the Concerto Köln recordings when they came out. Yesterday evening I tried out a more recent recording on CPO by the L'Orfeo Barockorchester, although this for some reason adds a fortepiano continuo which is highly obtrusive, and, given the general density of the string writing, completely superfluous it seems to me.

[MickyD]

I do like to listen to those String Symphonies now and again - I was attracted to them by the Concerto Köln recordings when they came out. Yesterday evening I tried out a more recent recording on CPO by the L'Orfeo Barockorchester, although this for some reason adds a fortepiano continuo which is highly obtrusive, and, given the general density of the string writing, completely superfluous it seems to me.

The Hanover Band did the String Symphonies for RCA..there is also an added fortepiano continuo here and there, which I can only presume is regarded as authentic. I find their playing less abrasive than Concerto Koln, but the set mentioned above by gurnemanz is worth having for those concertos with Andreas Staier.

Didn't know about the L'Orfeo Barockorkester recordings, Richard...