Felix & Fanny Mendelssohn: Quartets
Virgin Classics 464546-2
Fanny Mendelssohn: String Quartet in E-flat major (20:31)
Ébène Quartet
In a characteristically imaginative stroke of programming, the Ébène Quartet presents a total of three quartets by two Mendelssohns – Felix and his older sister, Fanny. She produced a canon of well over 400 pieces – although only one string quartet. By contrast, Felix composed seven works in the genre. This disc features the A minor quartet of 1827, very much under the influence of Beethoven, and the F minor quartet of 20 years later, expressive of the grief he felt at Fanny’s death in 1847.
Felix & Fanny Mendelssohn: Quartets,
Outstanding! Fanny finally gets some of the credit she deserves.