Felix MENDELSSOHN (1809-1847) : QUARTETS OPP.44/2 & 80, CAPCICCIO OP. 81/3 ZEMLINSKY Quartet

The Quartet in E minor, a favourite key of Mendelssohn’s, was written on his honeymoon journey. Its immediate success barely outlived him, although its formal perfection served as a model for Schumann (Op.41), Brahms, Smetana, Dvořák and even Tchaikovsky, who drew the essentials of their art of the quartet from it. The Zemlinskys, trained in the double Czech and avant-garde schools, restore its purity of style and forgotten modernity, as in the final Opus 80, a veritable ‘Requiem for Fanny’, the beloved sister who died in May 1847, and for himself, who would follow her to the grave on 4 November.

PRD/DSD 250 267