Mendelssohn Quartets (and Schubert and Beethoven?)

[EdgeleyRob]

So do I.
I've changed my mind btw,Mendelssohn's Op 80 is as good as the guvnor's Op 127.

[David-G]

This morning I've been listening to Beethoven and Schubert late string quartets and was shocked to learn that I think that I actually prefer Schubert

I don't think that you need be shocked by that!

[Beef Oven!]

I don't think that you need be shocked by that!

Indeed!

[richardfinegold]

Is anyone familiar with the Brilliant box?

[kea]

There is a Quatuor Mosaïques recording of Op. 12 and 13 (my favourites as it happens) which I'm quite curious about. Anyone who's got experience with it is welcome to weigh in.

[verismissimo]

Beefie, with all this focus on Op 80, I feel the need to mention the Lindsays account. It was played live at Blackheath around 1990 and is widely regarded (?) as one of the Great Recordings.

Better still, you should have been there. It was amazing.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/String-Quartets-Lindsays-Brahms-Mendelssohn/dp/B00004SMTV/ref=sr_1_4?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1401260472&sr=1-4&keywords=mendelssohn+lindsays

[visualnickmos]

Is anyone familiar with the Brilliant box?

Yes. I particularly like the cello sonatas here.

[waldo]

There is a Quatuor Mosaïques recording of Op. 12 and 13 (my favourites as it happens) which I'm quite curious about. Anyone who's got experience with it is welcome to weigh in.

As it happens, I picked this up just a couple of weeks ago.......... Early impressions are that it is absolutely terrific. The sound is lovely, organ-like in places. A lot more vibrato than you would get with most period ensembles, but by no means continuous or unconsidered. I suspect it may be among their best recordings, but I have only listened to it a couple of times so far. Recorded in 1997 according to booklet, so it doesn't look like they are in a rush to record any more........

[Beef Oven!]

Beefie, with all this focus on Op 80, I feel the need to mention the Lindsays account. It was played live at Blackheath around 1990 and is widely regarded (?) as one of the Great Recordings.

Better still, you should have been there. It was amazing.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/String-Quart...ssohn+lindsays

Thanks for the steer, verismissio.

I went for the good value Cherubini recommendation, as per gurnemanz's post, for 1-6.

But, I fancy getting a 'dedicated' Op.80 and the Lindsays' account is tempting.

Lucky you, to have been at the gig!

[richardfinegold]

I thought that I had the complete set but some of the discs have gone missing. The two that I have, by the Juilliard and Eroica Qts, are identical in content, Op. 12 & 13. I listened to Op.44 by the Artemis Qt on Spotify .

There is a lot of great music there, but from some reason FM Quartets don't draw me in like other Composers. His slow movements don't seem to "stop time" and the fast fugal movements all sound as if he is trying to outdo the finale of Razumovsky/3. These criticisms probably say more about me than they do about FM. I 'll keep listening and perhaps my admiration for this music will eventually become true affection.

[MickyD]

If you like period strings, this is a lovely collection of Mendelssohn from Hausmusik - well worth acquiring for the Quintet No.1 alone:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mendelssohn-Chamber-Works-Hausmusik/dp/B00004TQQU/ref=sr_1_4?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1401284587&sr=1-4&keywords=mendelssohn+hausmusik

[Beef Oven!]

Don't, whatever you do, overlook the string quintets! The first, in A major, has been described by Peter Cropper as 'one of the secret masterpieces of chamber music'.

Oh dear, having said that I didn't know he'd done any 5Tts, I've just found a Philips CD of a 1970s recording on my shelf of the Quintet Op.87!!

Octet Op.20 is the lead work.

Academy Chamber Ensemble

Iona Brown, Malcolm Latchem, Roger Garland, Andrew McGee - violins

Stephen Shingles, Anthony Jenkins - violas

Denis Vigay, Roger Smith cellos

Playing the Octet as I type.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Is anyone familiar with the Brilliant box?

I have the Brilliant 40 CD Box "Mendelssohn: the Masterworks" (nla) which includes 10 discs of Chamber Works. The S4tets are shared between the Sharon, Bartok and English String Quartets (the Sharons also feature on the disc of S5tets) - performances that made me realize that the "received" rather patronizing critical opinion of the works was bunkham, without making me share Rob's high opinion of them (as expressed in #31). The 'cello Sonatas are played (very well) by Claude Stark and Christoph Eschenbach, the Piano Trios also receive excellent performances (Klara Wurtz, Joan Berkhemer, Nadia David) and there's a fizzingly fine (a couple of moments of peccable intonation aside) performance of the Octet from the Amati Octet (billed as the "Amati String Orchestra" - but it's only an orchestra in the sense of the old joke about the Soviet Symphony Orchestra after a tour of the West). Plus lots of less well-known works mostly written when the composer was a teenager, largely enjoyable, without the magic of the Octet.

They're the sort of performances that you'd think were excellent if you heard them in concert without the "profounder" insights and details to be found from more prestigeous ensembles. Or, if you prefer, they have none of the "artistic" interpretive distractions that can mar recordings by more famous ensembles.

I think the entire set cost me under £20 about four years ago: the Chamber Music discs are the ones I most frequently listen to.

[richardfinegold]

I have the Brilliant 40 CD Box "Mendelssohn: the Masterworks" (nla) which includes 10 discs of Chamber Works. The S4tets are shared between the Sharon, Bartok and English String Quartets (the Sharons also feature on the disc of S5tets) - performances that made me realize that the "received" rather patronizing critical opinion of the works was bunkham, without making me share Rob's high opinion of them (as expressed in #31). The 'cello Sonatas are played (very well) by Claude Stark and Christoph Eschenbach, the Piano Trios also receive excellent performances (Klara Wurtz, Joan Berkhemer, Nadia David) and there's a fizzingly fine (a couple of moments of peccable intonation aside) performance of the Octet from the Amati Octet (billed as the "Amati String Orchestra" - but it's only an orchestra in the sense of the old joke about the Soviet Symphony Orchestra after a tour of the West). Plus lots of less well-known works mostly written when the composer was a teenager, largely enjoyable, without the magic of the Octet.

They're the sort of performances that you'd think were excellent if you heard them in concert without the "profounder" insights and details to be found from more prestigeous ensembles. Or, if you prefer, they have none of the "artistic" interpretive distractions that can mar recordings by more famous ensembles.

I think the entire set cost me under £20 about four years ago: the Chamber Music discs are the ones I most frequently listen to.

There is a smaller Brilliant box that just contains the Chamber Music. Thanks for your comments.

[Bryn]

The Eroica Quartet's Mendelssohn string quartet recordings would be a tough call to beat. They are well HIPP, too.