Mendelssohn: String Quartets Nos. 2 & 3 Escher String Quartet

• 1I. Adagio07:59
• 2II. Adagio non lento08:07
• 3III. Intermezzo: Allegretto con moto -04:38
• 4IV. Presto09:13
• 5Andante sostenuto and Variations in E Major, Op. 81, No. 1, MWV R3405:41
• 6Scherzo in A Minor, Op. 81, No. 2, MWV R3504:12
• 7I. Molto allegro vivace12:32
• 8II. Menuetto: Un poco allegretto05:29
• 9III. Andante espressivo ma con moto05:22
• 10IV. Presto con brio07:10
• Total Runtime01:10:23

Info for Mendelssohn: String Quartets Nos. 2 & 3

In 1827, when writing his Quartet in A minor, Op.13, the eighteen-year-old Mendelssohn was especially interested in Beethoven’s late quartets – at a time when these works were generally written off as ‘confused fantasies of a deaf musician’. In Mendelssohn's A minor quartet the debt to Beethoven is evident in the important role of polyphonic techniques, and particularly in the focus on cyclical connections between movements. The composer achieves this by using material from his own song, Frage, describing the result in a letter to a friend: ‘You will hear it – with its own notes –in the first and last movements, and in all four movements you will hear its emotions expressed.’ Ten years after theOp. 13 quartet, Mendelssohn composed the three quartets that make up his Op. 44. The D major quartet that closes the present disc was the last of these to be completed, but on publication, Mendelssohn placed it as the first in the set – in a letter to the violinist Ferdinand David, he wrote: 'I am very fond of it... it’s more ardent than the others, and more rewarding for the players...’ Besides the seven complete quartets – of which the first one remained unpublished during the composer's lifetime – Mendelssohn also wrote four individual movements for string quartet. These were gathered together and published posthumously with the opus number 81, and on this second volume of their complete Mendelssohn cycle the Escher Quartet perform two of these pieces, both conceived in August 1847, only a couple of months before the composer’s death. The first volume in the Eschers' series, released in April 2015, has been warmly received by the critics, with the internet site Pizzicato describing it as 'a noteworthy addition to the Mendelssohn discography'.

Escher String Quartet

The Escher String Quartet
The Escher String Quartet has received acclaim for its profound musical insight and rare tonal beauty. Championed by the Emerson String Quartet, the group was on the BBC New Generation Artists scheme from 2010-2012, giving debuts at both the Wigmore Hall and the BBC Proms at Cadogan Hall. In its home town of New York, the ensemble serves as Artists of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, where last season they presented a critically acclaimed 3-concert series featuring the quartets of Benjamin Britten. In 2013, the Quartet became one of the very few chamber ensembles to be awarded the prestigious Avery Fischer Career Grant.

Within months of its inception in 2005, the Escher Quartet was invited by both Pinchas Zukerman and Itzhak Perlman to be Quartet in Residence at each artist’s summer festival: the Young Artists Programme at Canada’s National Arts Centre; and the Perlman Chamber Music Program on Shelter Island, NY. In addition, the quartet has since collaborated with artists including Khatia Buniatishvili, Leon Fleischer, David Finckel, Wu Han, Lynn Harrell, Joseph Kalichstein, and Jason Vieaux, as well as jazz vocalist Kurt Elling.

The Escher Quartet has performed at the Cheltenham and City of London festivals, the Auditorium du Louvre in Paris, the 92nd Street Y in New York, the Kennedy Center in Washington DC and at the Ravinia and Caramoor festivals. Elsewhere, the group has toured China and made its Australian debut at the Perth International Arts Festival. Last season, the Escher Quartet returned to the Wigmore Hall and made debuts in Switzerland at the Conservatoire de Musique de Genève and in Austria at the Schloss Esterházy in Eisenstadt. Highlights in the United States included performances at Northwestern University, the Coleman Chamber Music Society and the Buffalo Chamber Music Society.

The current season sees the quartet’s debut at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, as well as at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art in Israel; in addition, the group tours the UK with pianist Benjamin Grosvenor, and continues its relationship with the Wigmore Hall, returning to collaborate with jazz saxophonist Joshua Redman. The Escher Quartet gives further performances at New York’s Lincoln Center and finishes the season with a return to Music@Menlo. Further significant debuts follow next season including Berlin’s Konzerthaus, the Rio International Chamber Music Week in Brazil and the Hong Kong International Chamber Music Festival, as well as a debut appearance at London’s Kings Place.

The Escher Quartet has recorded the complete Zemlinsky String Quartets on the Naxos label and released Vol. 1 in July 2013; Vol. 2 follows in Summer 2014. Forthcoming releases include the Mendelssohn Quartet cycle on the BIS label.

The Escher Quartet takes its name from Dutch graphic artist M.C. Escher, inspired by Escher’s method of interplay between individual components working together to form a whole.

Booklet for Mendelssohn: String Quartets Nos. 2 & 3