Barthold - Mendelssohn: Piano Sextet, Op. 110; Piano Quartet No. 1 [CD]

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Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809 - 1847)Sextet in D Major for violin, two violas, cello, double bass and piano, Op.110Piano Quartet No.1 in C Minor, Op. 1Felix Mendelssohn, grandson of Moses Mendelssohn, the great Jewish thinker ofthe Enlightenment, was born in Hamburg in 1809, the son of a prosperous banker.His family was influential in cultural circles, and he and his sister wereeducated in an environment that encouraged both musical and general culturalinterests. At the same time the extensive acquaintance of the Mendelssohns amongartists and men of letters brought an unusual breadth of mind, a stimulus tonatural curiosity.Much of Mendelssohn's childhood was passed in Berlin, where his parents movedwhen he was three, to escape Napoleonic invasion. There he took lessons fromGoethe's much admired Zelter, who introduced him to the old poet in Weimar. Thechoice of a career in music was eventually decided on the advice of Cherubini,consulted by Abraham Mendelssohn in Paris, where he was director of theConservatoire. There followed a period of further education, a Grand Tour ofEurope that took him south to Italy and north to Scotland. His professionalcareer began in earnest with his appointment as general director of music inD??sseldorf in 1833.Mendelssohn's subsequent career was intense and brief. He settled in Leipzigas conductor of the Gewandhaus concerts, and was instrumental in establishingthe Conservatory there. Briefly lured to Berlin by the King of Prussia and bythe importunity of his family, he spent an unsatisfactory year or so as directorof the music section of the Academy of Arts, providing music for a revival ofclassical drama under royal encouragement. This appointment he was glad torelinquish in 1844, later returning to his old position in Leipzig, where hedied in 1847.As a composer Mendelssohn possessed a perfect technical command of theresources available to him and was always able to write music that isfelicitous, apt and often remarkably economical in the way it achieves itseffects. Mendelssohn had, like the rest of his family, accepted Christianbaptism, a ceremony Heine once described as a ticket of admission into Europeanculture. Nevertheless he encountered anti-Semitic prejudice, as others were to,and false ideas put about in his own life-time have left some trace in modernrepetitions of accusations of superficiality for which there is no realjustification.Mendelssohn's D major Sextet, like the three piano quartets, is thework of the early 1820s. Written in 1824, it is scored, unusually, for a singleviolin, two violas, cello, double bass and piano, instrumentation that providesits own rich sonorities. The strings open the first movement, immediatelyfollowed by the piano, which develops this opening. The strings, against asustained pedal E from the double bass, lead to the second subject, entrusted tothe piano, followed by material that allows the piano an accompanying tripletfiguration that continues through the coda into the

Sextet In D Major For Violin, Two Violas, Cello, Double Bass And Piano, Op.110: Allegro vivace

Sextet In D Major For Violin, Two Violas, Cello, Double Bass And Piano, Op.110: Adagio

Sextet In D Major For Violin, Two Violas, Cello, Double Bass And Piano, Op.110: Menuetto: Agitato

Sextet In D Major For Violin, Two Violas, Cello, Double Bass And Piano, Op.110: Allegro vivace

Piano Quartet No.1 In C Minor, Op.1: Allegro vivace

Piano Quartet No.1 In C Minor, Op.1: Adagio

Piano Quartet No.1 In C Minor, Op.1: Scherzo: Presto

Piano Quartet No.1 In C Minor, Op.1: Allegro moderato