This beautifully packaged
new set of Mendelssohn’s complete works
for String Quartet enters a surprisingly
crowded field. There are critically
acclaimed cycles from the Talich (Calliope),
Coull (Hyperion) and Cherubini (EMI),
as well as an excellent, nearly-complete
super budget cycle from the Henschel
Quartet on Arte Nova. DG obviously tries
to trump these sets by offering a bonus
disc that includes the Octet,
double tracked by the Emersons, of which
more later. Anyone who has sampled the
playing of this highly praised group
from their other recorded cycles of
Bartók, Shostakovich and Beethoven,
will possibly know the type of playing
to expect; immaculate intonation, bags
of energy and strong, muscular phrasing
that remind me of other modern groups,
such as the Alban Berg. Whether there
is enough charm, grace or warmth will
be a personal matter, but you will not
hear this music played with any more
technical polish than here.
For some reason, the
pieces do not follow chronologically
through the discs, though some re-programming
of your player can put this right to
a degree, if it bothers you. Thus disc
1 opens with the Second Quartet in
A minor, though as it’s considered
one of his finest early works and was
in fact written before the E flat
Op.12, this is no bad thing. These
youthful quartets owe a great deal to
the revered classical models of Haydn
and Beethoven, and there is also a reliance
on the notion of ‘first violin plus
accompaniment’, rather than a mastery
of integration with the four instruments.
However, such is the exuberance and
rhythmic propulsion, allied to a Schubertian
gift for memorable melody, that it is
impossible not to like any of these
pieces. There is also the composer’s
Romantic sensibility coming very much
to the fore, giving the music that uniquely
‘puckish’ edge (especially the scherzos)
that we all know so well from his other
famous scores.
This beautifully proportioned
A minor Quartet displays many
of these traits. The key signature and
subtle use of dissonance recall Beethoven’s
Op.132, but in all other respects
this is pure Mendelssohn. He achieves
a wonderful structural unity here by
basing the melodic material of all four
movements, either by direct quotation
or variation, on his own song ‘Frage’
(‘Question’). The dramatic opening to
the finale is positively operatic, the
leader intoning a vocal-style recitative
(marked ad lib.) over shimmering tremolando
accompaniment. It therefore comes as
no surprise when we read in the booklet
that this work may have been inspired
by a Berlin singer, Betty Pistor, to
whom Mendelssohn had also secretly dedicated
his Op.12. The Emersons are particularly
good at identifying these unifying compositional
features, giving their performance here
a great feeling of ‘rightness’, a feeling
of symphonic direction that is very
compelling.
The two Op.44 Quartets
come from nearly a decade later, when
Mendelssohn was 28 and now a world-renowned
composer. Interestingly, he appears
to have reverted to a more classical
style, especially in the key structures
and formal proportions (especially the
minuets). Here, the Emersons suitably
tone down their vigorous athleticism,
though they do not miss the mischief
in the scherzo of the E Flat,
with its rapid-fire staccatos and mock
fugato.
For most admirers of
the composer, the Quartet in F minor
Op.80 is the high point of his oeuvre.
Here, any classical balance or restraint
is replaced by a subjective outpouring
of grief at the death of his sister
Fanny some two months earlier. It is
obvious from the very start that we
are in different emotional territory
here, and it suits the Emersons to perfection.
The nervous, agitated tromolos and wide
melodic leaps that dominate the first
movement, the macabre scherzo and, especially,
the intense lyricism of the slow movement,
all show a hyper-romantic compositional
mind operating at fever pitch. Mendelssohn
himself had only months to live and
it’s difficult not to read some of these
hard biographical facts into the Emerson’s
performance. It is only one approach,
however, and the Henschel Quartet does
find a tad more humanity and inwardness
of expression that is also deeply felt.
The best music will always benefit from
a variety of interpretive viewpoints,
but it’s unlikely you will feel there
is anything seriously missing with the
Emersons.
The smaller ‘fill-up’
pieces are all expertly carried off,
as is the very early E flat Quartet,
written when the composer was only 14,
but it may well be the bonus disc that
decides it for you. This is the much-discussed
Octet, where the Emersons join
themselves in the studio. This is nothing
new, of course, with famous examples
from recorded history (I think of Grumiaux
accompanying himself, Domingo singing
tenor and baritone duets with himself
etc.) and the Emersons, with such wonderful
modern studio techniques, are completely
successful. It’s impossible to tell
that this is not one group, so it just
becomes a question of the interpretation.
Here, it could be argued that this is
the best of the set, with the precocious
16-year-old composer’s astonishingly
mature inspiration fully matched by
these interpreters. Indeed, they seem
to have taken his instructions from
the first printed edition of 1832 as
their blueprint. The composer wrote
that ‘The Octet must be played by all
the instruments in the style of a symphonic
orchestra. Pianos and fortes
must be exactly observed and more strongly
emphasised than is usual in works of
this type’. This could sum up the Emerson’s
performance, from the thrilling dynamic
momentum of the first movement, through
to the fugal grandeur of the finale.
The intricately shifting textures and
divisions are superbly observed, and
overall this group revel in, and share
with us, the symphonic tour-de-force
that gives this amazing work its universal
standing and appeal.
I suppose it just remains
to be said that the recording is absolutely
first-rate, and the booklet notes by
Mendelssohn scholar R. Larry Todd a
model of their kind. You may be more
interested in the video documentary
than I was (perhaps if you’re more technically
minded) but this DG box is a neat and
economical way to get superb modern
performances of life-enhancing music.
Tony Haywood
The Emerson Quartet 
