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We suggest works to try a er Fanny Mendelssohn’s String Quartet
Fanny Mendelssohn wrote just the one published string quartet, so for further explorations of her chamber music, head towards her Piano Trio in D minor – and, in particular, the masterful first movement that alternates between stormy rumblings on the piano and melodic musings on the cello and violin
(Atlantis Trio; Musica Omnia MO0105). The Trio, composed as a birthday present for her younger sister Rebecka, was written by Fanny shortly before her death, an event marked by Felix Mendelssohn in his String Quartet No. 6, often referred to as his ‘Requiem for Fanny’. The emotional heart of said requiem can be heard in its doleful third movement with its regularly sighing first violin part, though a sense of unappeased anguish also runs right through its fraught finale – there is little sense of gentle acquiescence (Emerson Quartet; DG E477 5370). A friend of Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn, but even shorter lived than both of them, was Norbert
Burgmüller. His Fourth String Quartet, composed shortly before his death at just 26 in 1836, is as companionable as it is characterful (Mannheim String Quartet; MDG MDG3360993). And talking of friends of the Mendelssohns, try also the rarely performed three string quartets by Robert Schumann, composed in a rapid flurry in June 1842. Though by no means showcasing the best of Schumann, moments such as the bouncing finale of No. 2 suggest they deserve to be a little better known than they presently are (Takács Quartet; SWR Digital SWR10003). And finally, for a female contemporary of Fanny Mendelssohn, try the String Quartet in G minor by Emilie Mayer (1812-83). Much of it is a fast and furious affair, but there’s also an exquisite thirdmovement Adagio that, as if paying a nod to Felix Mendelssohn, takes a moment out to quote a Bach chorale (Erato Quartett; CPO 999 6792).
As if paying a nod to Felix Mendelssohn, Mayer quotes a Bach chorale