28 / 56
The
String Quartet in E flat major
, completed in March 1823, bears no opus
number and it was not published until 1878 (Erler, Leipzig). Unbelievably, this
twenty-minute masterpiece is the work of a boy of fourteen! The influence
of Haydn and Mozart can be felt quite strongly, particularly in the second of
the four movements,
adagio non troppo
. But the lyricism of this work is not
that of a child. We are immediately reminded of Mozart’s middle quartets.
We are filled with wonder at the skill of this young man, his remarkable
assimilation, his flowing harmonies. The elegance of the
Menuetto
, a short
dance in Biedermeier style, is quite delightful. The work ends with a fugue, a
study exercise whose source is to be found in the
Sinfonias for strings
which he
had by then almost completed. Mendelssohn was both a pupil and a master
at that time, and already completely himself.
The String Quartet in A minor Op. 13 was in fact the second string quartet
Mendelssohn published (Op. 12 was written two years later, but published
first). The young composer had recently learned of Beethoven’s death (on 26
March 1827), and the shock apparently inspired him to improvise a Lied,
Frage
(Question), Op. 9 No. 1, to a text by the German poet Johann Heinrich Voss
(1751-1825).
The influence of Beethoven’s StringQuartet inAminorOp. 132 is clear fromthe
outset. The two works have in common the key of A minor, the semiquaver
transition between the slow introduction and the fast first movement, and
the rhythm of the first theme.
The
String Quartet in B flat major Op. 12
was commenced in Berlin in the
spring of 1829 and completed in London on 14 September of the same year.
Like the earlier Opus 13, The String Quartet in B flat major Op. 12 shows the
influence of Beethoven: the slowopening introduction this time suggests the
beginning of the latter’s ‘Harp’ Quartet in B flat major Op. 74.
28 MENDELSSOHN_TALICH QUARTET