If I have one thing to thank for the events of 2009 it is my
discovery of the music of Felix Mendelssohn. Before last year
I knew the usual Mendelssohn pieces - the
Midsummer Night’s
Dream music (which I studied for O level music years ago),
the
Scottish and
Italian Symphonies, the delicious
Octet,
a few
Lieder ohne Worte and the
Violin Concerto.
A friend of mine, after I expressed excitement at a recital of
Mendelssohn’s string quartets in the Wigmore Hall told
me that I was “woefully misinformed”. Underinformed
would have been a better description for the music was always
there, it was just me who couldn’t be bothered to make
the effort to listen to it. Gradually, I am beginning to discover
what treasures I have been missing all these years.
This CD is excellent: the music, the playing, the recorded sound.
Indeed, it is everything you could want in a CD of gorgeous chamber
music, and chamber music of the first rank.
To start with the
Capriccio - the third of the
Four
Pieces, op.81 - was a bright idea for, after a slow introduction,
it is sprightly and energetic, full of tension and not a little
angst (and this is a capriccio?) and with a surprise ending which
will throw your whole perception of this supposedly delightful
music out of kilter. Now you’re sitting on the edge of
your seat wondering just what Mendelssohn will toss at you next.
The second string quartet, although an obviously youthful work,
isn’t in any way a student piece - he might only have been
18 years old when he wrote it, but, in the Mendelssohnian scheme
of things, he was already a mature composer by this time, for
this work was preceded by the
Octet in E flat in 1825
and the
Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture of 1826.
It’s quite astonishing just how quickly Mendelssohn served
his compositional apprenticeship and became a major, and very
professional, figure on the musical scene. If the music doesn’t
have the same depth of feeling or emotion which fills the
op.44 work
recorded here, it is more than just a pretty and colourful essay
in the quartet medium. What Mendelssohn hadn’t quite learned
by this time was that there is a fine line between pathos and
bathos, and he doesn’t quite manage to avoid the latter
in moments (but only moments) of his slow movement. The scherzo
is a fun two part piece with slightly heavy handed outer sections
and a trio which is as light as anything this composer ever wrote.
The finale displays a deeper sensibility than, at first, one
might expect. There is a very serious, and slightly subdued,
fugue in the middle of the movement, which adds to the pathos
(most certainly only this here), and although there is some sparkling
writing for the instruments there is a feeling of tragedy as
the music and the ending is quite unsettling.
The
Fugue which follows, although having a late opus number,
is, in fact, contemporary with the
A minor Quartet. It’s
not as searching a piece as it would have been had it been contemporaneous
with the
Capriccio which started this disk, but it is
a pleasant makeweight and is most welcome between the two bigger
works.
The
5th Quartet is a work of
Mendelssohn’s real maturity and it is as assured a work
as he ever wrote. The first movement is a long
Allegro vivace where
Mendelssohn never lets the tension, or the pace, slip for a moment;
what a splendid achievement it is! The ensuing scherzo is heavier
than might be expected, perhaps imbued with a sense of desperation,
hence the hectic quality of the music. Slow movement and finale
deliver a real punch of emotion and excitement, and bring this
great, and there can be no other word to describe this music,
quartet to its end.
The New Zealand Quartet plays these works with wonderful insight
and understanding and they are not afraid to take chances when
necessary, but always in the service of the music. Also, they
are unafraid when it comes to being straight forward, as in the
Fugue,
for there’s very little you can do with this particular
piece except play it and the New Zealanders make no attempt to
blow it up into a bigger piece. This is intelligent music-making.
The recording is excellent, bright and clear and with a nice
perspective on the four musicians. The notes, whilst brief, are
good.
This is certainly well worth investigating, if you don’t
know the music, and adding to your collection if you do. I look
forward to hearing more of the New Zealand Quartet, perhaps in
Haydn or Beethoven.
Bob Briggs
New Zealand Quartet (Helene Pohl,
Douglas Beilman (violins), Gillian Ansell (viola),
Rolf Gjelsten (cello)) 
