The Eroica Quartet - Felix Mendelssohn: String Quartets, Vol. 3 (2005)

Posted By: ArlegZ

Date: Feb. 16, 2021

This is listed as the final installment in the Eroica’s Mendelssohn quartets series. It also happens to come on the heels of two brand new complete sets—one from the preeminent Emerson Quartet, the other from the pacesetting Pacifica Quartet. Comparisons to these ensembles, though probably unavoidable, are not particularly apt or instructive, for the Eroica is a period-instruments group dedicated to interpretations of 19th-century Romantic works that reflect as closely as possible the performance practices that would have been in vogue at the time the music was written. To this end, they have Read more studied early-performing editions and made use of the annotated fingerings and bowings of Ferdinand David (1810–1873), concertmaster of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Mendelssohn’s friend, and advisor to the composer on technical matters regarding the Violin Concerto.
For those who have not followed this series or this ensemble, the Eroica Quartet is a British group founded in 1993 by four young musicians, three of whom were (and may still be) principals in John Eliot Gardiner’s Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique. They record exclusively for Harmonia Mundi, and have thus far committed to disc three Beethoven quartets, Schumann’s three op. 41 quartets, and the current Mendelssohn under review.
Not having had the pleasure of hearing the Eroica’s earlier installments in this series, I was a bit apprehensive when I read in the booklet notes about the frequent use of portamento, “little concern for continuous vibrato,” and, in fast passages, a resistance to allowing the natural tendency of the bow to bounce off the string. What emerged from my listening, however, was quite a different picture. More than once in these pages I’ve been sharply critical of some modern-instruments groups that engage in practices that seem to me quite retro and yes, I’ll say it, even tasteless, in the context of what are alleged to be modern performances. The problem arises when such practices are applied willfully and unintelligently, without regard to when and where they are appropriate. In the Eroica’s hands, one is barely aware of such things as portamento, vibrato or the absence of it, and bowing techniques because it all sounds absolutely natural and right. It is not stuck on; therefore, it does not stand out. Rather, it becomes integral with the overall conception of the piece.
Nowhere did this become more evident to me than in the Adagio non troppo of the E? Quartet, op. 44/3. In listening to both the Emerson and the Pacifica Quartets, the mouth drops open at the sheer virtuosity of Mendelssohn’s quicksilver movements, but the slow movements—all of them—struck me as lacking in any real inspiration or emotional depth, a fault I attributed, as do many, to Mendelssohn himself, a composer who is often seen as a victim of his own Victorian inhibitions. But the Eroica draws from this movement a songfulness and a soulfulness that more urbane performances tend to gloss over. Right from the beginning, (at :23) a perfectly placed and just right portamento sets the tone for the most touching and intimate playing of this movement I have ever heard. In fast movements, the Eroica has more than enough technical spit and polish to toss off Mendelssohn’s multitudes of notes cleanly and in tune, but they do not make virtuosity the point.
I must confess in all honesty that I am not a keen proponent or fan of period-instruments performances in music postdating the Baroque, but if ever a recording were to make a convert of me, this is it.
–Jerry Dubins

Performer:
The Eroica Quartet:
Peter Hanson, violin
Lucy Howard, violins
Gustav Clarkson, viola
David Watkin, cello

Track List:
String Quartet in E-flat, Op. 44, No. 3
01. Allegro Vivace
02. Scherzo. Assai leggiero vivace
03. Adagio non troppo
04. Molto Allegro con fuoco
String Quartet in F Minor, Op. 80
05. Allegro vivace assai
06. Allegro assai
07. Adagio
08. Final. Allegro molto
Pieces for String Quartet, Op. 81
09. I. Tema con Variazioni
10. II. Scherzo
11. III. Capriccio

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Felix Mendelssohn / String Quartets, Vol. 3

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