Quatuor Van Kuijk - Mendelssohn: Complete String Quartets Vol. 2 (2023)

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.’
Tracklist
1. Mendelssohn: String Quartet No. 6 in F Minor, Op. 80: I. Allegro vivace assai (7:08)
2. Mendelssohn: String Quartet No. 6 in F Minor, Op. 80: II. Allegro assai (4:30)
3. Mendelssohn: String Quartet No. 6 in F Minor, Op. 80: III. Adagio (9:12)
4. Mendelssohn: String Quartet No. 6 in F Minor, Op. 80: IV. Finale. Allegro molto (5:27)
5. Mendelssohn: String Quartet No. 4 in E Minor, Op. 44 No. 2: I. Allegro assai appassionato (9:23)
6. Mendelssohn: String Quartet No. 4 in E Minor, Op. 44 No. 2: II. Scherzo. Allegro di molto (3:42)
7. Mendelssohn: String Quartet No. 4 in E Minor, Op. 44 No. 2: III. Andante (6:22)
8. Mendelssohn: String Quartet No. 4 in E Minor, Op. 44 No. 2: IV. Presto agitato (6:15)
9. Mendelssohn: String Quartet No. 5 in E-Flat Major, Op. 44 No. 3: I. Allegro vivace (9:41)
10. Mendelssohn: String Quartet No. 5 in E-Flat Major, Op. 44 No. 3: II. Scherzo. Assai leggiero vivace (3:55)
11. Mendelssohn: String Quartet No. 5 in E-Flat Major, Op. 44 No. 3: III. Adagio non troppo (8:31)
12. Mendelssohn: String Quartet No. 5 in E-Flat Major, Op. 44 No. 3: IV. Molto allegro con fuoco (8:52)