"From the Merel Quartet‘s inception, the music of Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy has played an important role in ou repertoire. We find it fascinating how he achieves his own musical language in his string quartet writing, even in his earliest works in that genre. Clearly he is influenced by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, nevertheless, from the very first measures of his quartet Op 12 it is his own voice, his own unique sound which we hear. You simply have to love this music: the freshness, the intelligence, the enthusiasm which is especially infectious in these works; the high virtuosity of the Scherzi – witty, light, mysterious elfin, similar to his music for “A Midsummer Night‘s Dream“; the lyricism – often we have the feeling that even in his chamber music he has written songs without words; and finally the codas - I don‘t know of anything more intoxicating than the end of the octet‘s first movement, or when, in the Finale of Op 12, he returns to material from the first movement, closing the circle and coming to rest – wonderful! The Octet Op 20 is unique in its genre. Mendelssohn, just 16 years old, draws on all the possibilities of the eight instruments with unsurpassed mastery. As an example: his brilliant command of counterpoint especially in the Finale, beginning with an eight-voice fugato and leading to a theme quoted from the Halleluja Choir from Händel‘s “Messiah“: “And He shall reign forever and ever“. We feel extremely fortunate to have met the young English foursome with whom we recorded Mendelssohn’s octet: the Castalian String Quartet. It is very rare indeed to find such a close musical affinity between two ensembles and working with them was extremely rewarding. The idea for this recording was born during our performance of the octet at the chamber music festival “Zwischentöne“ in Engelberg in October 2017." (Merel Quartet)
