Many listeners will be drawn to this Takács Quartet release by the presence of Fanny Mendelssohn's String Quartet in E flat major, which remains sparsely represented on recordings despite the general upswing of interest in music by women. The work was unknown in the 19th century and was first published only in 1988. Composed in 1834, when Mendelssohn was 19, it's really quite a striking attempt to wrestle with Beethoven's example, featuring a fugal trio section in the Scherzo, references to the String Quartet No. 10 in E ...
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Many listeners will be drawn to this Takács Quartet release by the presence of Fanny Mendelssohn's String Quartet in E flat major, which remains sparsely represented on recordings despite the general upswing of interest in music by women. The work was unknown in the 19th century and was first published only in 1988. Composed in 1834, when Mendelssohn was 19, it's really quite a striking attempt to wrestle with Beethoven's example, featuring a fugal trio section in the Scherzo, references to the String Quartet No. 10 in E flat major, Op. 74 ("Harp"), and other Beethovenian touches. This plays to the strengths of the Takács Quartet, a group well known for its Beethoven recordings; the Takács Quartet brings out a palpable sense of exploration of the possibilities of the Beethovenian language in such passages as the harmonically ambiguous and pregnant opening of the first movement. If this is not enough, the Takács' performances of Felix Mendelssohn's two string quartets are also very strong. Both of these...
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