Quatuor Ébène – Mendelssohn Felix and Fanny (2013) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Quatuor Ébène – Mendelssohn Felix and Fanny (2013)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:16:50 minutes | 784 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Erato – Warner Classics

The Quatuor Ebène turns to Mendelssohn: two quartets by Felix and one by his elder sister Fanny, who composed over 400 works and who, like her brother, died in 1847. “Felix’s quartets speak with intimacy, but are not devoid of violent, stormy emotion,” says Raphaël Merlin of the Quatuor Ebène. He praises Fanny for composing “with surprising freedom”, saying “we fell in love with her string quartet”.

In a characteristically imaginative stroke of programming, the Quatuor Ebène presents a total of three quartets by two Mendelssohns – Felix and his older sister, Fanny.

Like Felix, Fanny was a highly gifted child, but, as a woman, her life took a different path from his. Felix remained close to her and solicited and respected her opinions on his music. She, meanwhile, produced a canon of well over 400 pieces – although only one string quartet; by contrast, Felix composed seven works in the genre, one of them a youthful work that carries no opus number. This disc features the A minor quartet he composed in 1827, very much under the influence of Beethoven, and the F minor quartet of 20 years later, a highly emotional piece, expressive of the grief he felt at Fanny’s death, aged 41, in May 1847. As it turned out, the quartet was to be the last major work he composed: he himself died in November of that year, at the age of just 38.

Tracklist:

1-01. Quatuor Ébène – String Quartet No. 2 Op.13 in A minor: I Adagio-Allegro vivace (07:55)
1-02. Quatuor Ébène – String Quartet No. 2 Op.13 in A minor: II Adagio non lento (07:43)
1-03. Quatuor Ébène – String Quartet No. 2 Op.13 in A minor: III Intermezzo : Allegretto con moto (05:10)
1-04. Quatuor Ébène – String Quartet No. 2 Op.13 in A minor: IV Presto (09:21)
1-05. Quatuor Ébène – String Quartet in E flat major: I Adagio ma non troppo (04:31)
1-06. Quatuor Ébène – String Quartet in E flat major: II Allegretto (03:37)
1-07. Quatuor Ébène – String Quartet in E flat major: III Romanze (06:44)
1-08. Quatuor Ébène – String Quartet in E flat major: IV Allegro molto vivace (05:39)
1-09. Quatuor Ébène – String Quartet No. 6 Op.80 in F minor: I Allegro vivace assai (07:36)
1-10. Quatuor Ébène – String Quartet No. 6 Op.80 in F minor: II Allegro assai (04:33)
1-11. Quatuor Ébène – String Quartet No. 6 Op.80 in F minor: III Adagio (08:26)
1-12. Quatuor Ébène – String Quartet No. 6 Op.80 in F minor: IV Finale: Allegro molto (05:30)

Download: