There’s something
about a string Quintet that I’ve always
found far more appealing than a Quartet.
While many composers thrive on the
economy of means that a quartet necessitates,
they can also be inspired to special
heights by the extra layer that a
quintet supplies. That extra instrument
makes all the difference. I’d far
rather listen to Mozart’s great string
quintets than his quartets, and Schubert’s
quintet is perhaps the greatest work
of chamber music ever composed. So
it was with a positive predisposition
that I turned to this Mendelssohn
disc, and I wasn’t disappointed.
Nineteen years separate
these two works. The first quintet
was written when Mendelssohn was only
17, the same year in which he produced
his Midsummer Night’s Dream
overture, while the second dates from
the last year of his life. The difference
in style is fairly evident. No. 1
is full of youthful exuberance, though
still combined with breathtaking artistry,
while No. 2 is more thoughtful and
restrained.
The first quintet,
for some reason given second on this
disc, is unremittingly sunny, from
the pastoral first movement, through
the affectionate intermezzo and busy
scherzo to the playful finale. The
second, on the other hand, is more
subtle and nuanced. The first movement’s
first subject on the violin takes
off in a typical "flying"
theme while the others provide busy
momentum which propels the music forward
to its sunny conclusion. The second
movement is a quirky (parody?) minuet,
while the third is a funereal piece
of sombre majesty, and the finale
is a sparkling vivace. As an additional
bonus we are given the original second
movement (Minuet) of the first quintet:
the current one is a replacement written
as a memorial to Mendelssohn’s friend,
the violinist Eduard Rietz, to whom
the Octet had been dedicated.
The performances
from the Fine Arts Quartet are ideally
suited to this kind of music. They
tailor their sound perfectly to the
very different demands of each movement
and carry off the technical issues
flawlessly: listen to the skilful
double-stopping at the end of the
first quintet’s first movement. At
no stage, however, does the music
sound academic or pushed: the musicians
work together as an integrated unit
and listen to each other to "gel"
seamlessly. I get the feeling that
they really enjoyed making this disc.
The Naxos sound is close in a warm
acoustic, quite fitting for this music.
So unfamiliar as
this repertoire is, it repays the
effort in getting to know it, and
one can hardly imagine these works
being given a more sympathetic reading.
Simon Thompson
Fine Arts Quartet (Ralph Evans (violin);
Efim Boico (violin); Yuri Gandelsmam (viola);
Wolfgang Laufer (cello)); Danilo Rossi (viola)
