Mendelssohn: String Octet - 2nd movement

Unlike most of us, who spent our sixteenth years contemplating acne in the mirror, these expressive eyes were fixed on manuscript paper, as Felix Mendelssohn busied himself creating music that would take the world’s breath away. No young genius in the history of music – not even Mozart – had flung himself at a new medium like this with such confidence and dexterity.
So why an Octet? What possessed this teenager to burst from his musical nursery with a piece that wasn’t just extravagant, but shows a terrifyingly assured grasp of musical language and argument, and is anything but a dry exercise in compositional technique – it’s a boundless affirmation of youth, vitality and joy.
In the slow movement Mendelssohn explores emotional depths that seem simply impossible for a callow youth – opening with violas and cellos, their plea is answered by violins, and gradually a movement of elegant symmetry unfolds.
And this performance? It’s particularly special, given as part of the 2009 Cheltenham Music Festival in the sublime acoustic of the Pittville Pump Room. As part of Artistic Director Meurig Bowen’s ‘World Quartets’ series, and with the echoes of the unfolding drama of the Ashes series in the distance, two quartets – one Australian and one English – join forces in a spirit of musical collaboration that celebrates the value of great music as a unifying cultural force. The ‘Ashes’ Octet. I think Felix would have enjoyed the joke.

Tags

cello, viola, violin, The Barbirolli Quartet, Australian String Quartet, octet, string, Cheltenham, Mendelssohn, and Op.20