Felix MENDELSSOHN (1809-1847) : QUARTETS OPP.44/1 & /3, OP. 81/1-2 ZEMLINSKY Quartet

In these years of 1837-38, Mendelssohn was at the height of his humanist glory, concurrently violinist, violist, pianist, composer, conductor (of the Gewandhaus in Leipzig), still a painter in his already too-rare spare time, and a newlywed… ‘At the moment, everything comes so easily and so nicely under my pen’, he wrote, this exemplified by the Opus 44 Quartets with their radiant, virtuoso allegros and slow movements tinged with nostalgia—irresistible ‘songs without words’ for strings.

PRD/DSD 250 269