Mendelssohn

[Don Petter]

I agree about the quartets. I have the (probably pioneering?) complete set by the Bartholdy Quartet, which held the field for a quite long time.

[Roehre]

I agree about the quartets. I have the (probably pioneering?) complete set by the Bartholdy Quartet, which held the field for a quite long time.

That original 4LP-set might be the very first complete one indeed, originally recorded for BASF in the early 1970s and after that record company's demise re-issued on Acanta, as 4LP-set (1980 IIRC) and later a 3CD-set.

[Stanfordian]

String Quartet in E flat, Op.12 coming to an end on the lunchtime concert as I write.

Do others agree that his string quartets are undervalued and underperformed?

I have several versions of the Mendelssohn string quartets. I particularly admire and find the most satisfying the excellent accounts by the Henschel Quartet. Their accounts of the quartets are available in 3 volumes or as one single complete set (which Amazon are showing as currently unavailable). If you can obtain it the complete Mendelssohn set by the Henschel on Arte Nova is certainly worth searching out.

[EdgeleyRob]

I have several versions of the Mendelssohn string quartets. I particularly admire and find the most satisfying the excellent accounts by the Henschel Quartet. Their accounts of the quartets are available in 3 volumes or as one single complete set (which Amazon are showing as currently unavailable). If you can obtain it the complete Mendelssohn set by the Henschel on Arte Nova is certainly worth searching out.

I have that set too, I agree it's excellent.

[jayne lee wilson]

It was thanks to Hans Keller's R3 talks in the 70s that I became enamoured of Mendelssohn's chamber music. For me - I suspect for anyone who hears them - it has to be the Leipzig Quartet's complete set on MusikProduction Dabringhaus und Grimm (try saying that after half a bottle), MDG Gold. It's not cheap, spread across separate discs, but the performances are unsurpassably intense and beautiful, the sound... top-notch purist audiophile, audibly uncompressed, set in highly sympathetic churches or small halls. Intense and uncontainable, Op.80 gets the performance of its life.

Yes, the Eroicas are fine too. For the quintets, L'Archibudelli or the Raphaels. But MDG must have done the Quintets by now, haven't looked recently.

[AmpH]

My choices in this repertoire are the New Zealand and Eroica Quartets.

Whilst I did not find the Leipzig Quartet recordings to my taste when I listened to them some time ago, it may be of interest that when Richard Wigmore considered the Mendelssohn string quartets as a whole for BaL in Oct 2005 he nominated the Leipzigs as his first choice, with the Henschel Quartet as his budget choice and the Eroica Quartet as his period instrument choice.

[visualnickmos]

I enjoy the Melos (DG) set of the string quartets very much. Also the Brilliant Classics box set of complete Mendelssohn chamber music has some very enjoyable performances of the SQs - by various quartets. But the cello sonatas in this set are sublime - Christoph Eschenbach's piano playing is gorgeous.

[Parry1912]

I've got the Brilliant 'Mendelssohn Portrait' box (which I assume has the same quartet performances as mentioned above) as well as the Emerson, Ysaye and Henschel sets (the Henschel was part of Sony's excellent 'Mendelssohn Complete Materpieces' box).

All excellent but the Henschel or the Emerson would probably be my choice. Not heard the Leipzig tho'.

[Pianorak]

Or Brilliant for that matter, having put all the chamber music in one boxed set some ten years or so ago already.

I wonder if that is a reissue of the 5 CD EMI Classics [EMI Music France] set (Grieg Trio, Cherubini Q - Tortellier, Sabine Meyer a.o.) which I have.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I wonder if that is a reissue of the 5 CD EMI Classics [EMI Music France] set (Grieg Trio, Cherubini Q - Tortellier, Sabine Meyer a.o.) which I have.

If the contents are the same as the BRILLIANT 40CD Box Mendelssohn: the Masterworks, then no.

S4tets Opp 12, 13, 80 & 81: Sharon 4tet (from Arts Music, Rotterdam)
S4tet Op 44 no 1: Bartok 4tet (from Hungaraton)
S4tet Op 44 no 2 & 3: The English String Quartet (from Meridian Records)

[Pianorak]

Thanks, Ferneyhoughbeloved. I had no idea there was this 40CD BRILLIANT box.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Thanks, Ferneyhoughbeloved. I had no idea there was this 40CD BRILLIANT box.

No longer seems to be available, Pi. Replaced by this:

http://www.selections.com/AL187/mendelssohn-portrait-40cds/

... which contains many of the same recordings (Sawallisch and the New Philharmonia in the Symphonies instead of a miscellaneous collection) but is nearly twice the price I paid four years ago. (Not a bad way to obtain a library's worth of Mendelssohn in one go, btw!)

[JohnSkelton]

I find Mendelssohn's string quartets and quintets the most engaging of his music that I know; I do find there's an aspect of well-crafted politeness and a restriction of expressive and emotional range which makes Mendelssohn much less interesting to me than Schumann, say. (I find that in the op. 80 string quartet, too, as if the manner is so strongly established it keeps coming back against the material's will. Though I agree it's a magnificent work). The Eroica Quartet for me, too, and a very vividly played Artis Qt. set which I picked up years ago but which still seems to be in the catalogue (http://www.mdt.co.uk/MDTSite/product//465892-2.htm).

[Pianorak]

No longer seems to be available, Pi. Replaced by this:

http://www.selections.com/AL187/mendelssohn-portrait-40cds/

... which contains many of the same recordings (Sawallisch and the New Philharmonia in the Symphonies instead of a miscellaneous collection) but is nearly twice the price I paid four years ago. (Not a bad way to obtain a library's worth of Mendelssohn in one go, btw!)

Thanks - but what with more Albeniz, Bruckner, Delius and Puccini arriving any day now - I'd better hold my horses.

[Ariosto]

I love playing or performing Op 44 No 3 I think it is. (It's in D major anyway). Quite technically hard in places but wonderful.