Felix Mendelssohn rates
as one of the nineteenth century’s foremost
composers. He was a prodigious genius
on the level of Mozart, a music historian
that is credited with the revival of
the great baroque masters Bach and Handel,
a child of wealth whose fame spread
easily due in large part to his ready
access to major publishers, performers
and venues, and a truly substantial
composer whose life was cut tragically
short.
That he lived for fewer
than forty years makes his enormous
output ranging from delightful piano
miniatures to major symphonic and choral
works all the more remarkable. Although
limited to only thirty-one pieces -
a relatively modest number in comparison
to the piano and choral output - chamber
music makes up a serious and significant
part of Mendelssohn’s oeuvre.
Of all the available
influences on romantic composers, Johann
Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven
played the biggest role in young Mendelssohn’s
development. As the basis of most compositional
training at the time, Bach’s keyboard
works were well known to him. He was
also well acquainted Bach’s major choral
works, in particular the great Passions.
He was later to mount some of the first
performances of the St. Matthew Passion
to have been heard since the Bach’s
death in 1750.
Beethoven’s late string
quartets, incomprehensible to and thought
unplayable by his contemporaries, were
also well known to Mendelssohn, who
had studied them thoroughly as a youth,
and incorporated many of their advanced
ideas into his own compositions early
on.
Composed in 1821, the
early fugues that are performed on this
program are clearly influenced by Bach.
Mendelssohn even goes so far as to use
the Lutheran chorale tune Wie Schön
leuchtet der Morgenstern as a cantus
firmus for the Fugue in F, a signature
Bach technique. That these masterful
exercises in counterpoint were composed
by a twelve year old boy is utterly
astounding, and although perhaps academic
in intent, they are full of youthful
optimism and confidence. They are perhaps
the high point of this recording, and
are performed by the Voglers to complete
perfection. Straightforward and clear,
they are little aural gems and are completely
captivating.
The Op 12 Quartet opens
with a tuneful introduction that is
followed by a sonata exposition and
development that harks back to Beethoven
- with the slight straying gesture of
adding a third theme to the mix. The
slow movement is noteworthy for its
distinctly memorable main tune. The
work closes with a stormy virtuosic
third movement. The e minor quartet
op. 42 was written some fifteen years
after op. 12, and while it presents
no radical formal changes from the earlier
work, it is more prone to dramatic mood
swings and harmonic and melodic tensions
than the more youthful quartet. As such
it can be said to be of a more romantic
nature that the classically-oriented
earlier work.
The Voglers play with
a taut sense of ensemble throughout
with spot-on intonation, a rich warm
tone, careful attention to detail, and
a magnificent sense of voicing and collegial
give and take. No overbearing soloist
types in this choir; these musicians
play with a complete dedication to the
music itself, capturing both the sweetness
that is a given in the case of Mendelssohn
as well as the seriousness that comes
with any genre of "absolute"
music.
Profil’s Edition
Gunter Hänssler is rapidly
showing itself to be one of the most
consistently fine and interesting new
labels on the market. That they are
under the distribution aegis of Naxos
is no great surprise. Klaus Heymann
proves time and again that he "knows
how to pick ’em" as we say in the
American South. Program notes are interesting,
scholarly and well translated; presentation
and packaging are attractive, and the
sound quality is superb.
Highly recommended.
Kevin Sutton
Vogler String Quartet (Tim Vogler and Frank
Reinecke, violins; Stefan Fehlandt, viola; Stephan
Forck, cello)) 
