Mendelssohn: String Quintets 1 & 2 - L'Archibudelli

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
This is music to put a smile on your face and joy into your heart. Written 20 years apart, the two quintets are very different in mood and character, but both are masterpieces; why they are so rarely played is a mystery. The first is all airy lightness and sunshine, full of melting, soaring melodies, with a warm, expressive slow movement, a Scherzo that is not only scintillating, but contrapuntally masterful, and a brilliant Finale. The second is more fiery, urgent, and passionate, the texture fuller and richer; the Scherzo is ironic, rustic; the slow movement is lamentatious and tragic, but ends triumphantly. The playing is simply splendid. L'Archibudelli, a distinguished period-instrument group, uses normal tuning and what seems a modified romantic approach, with restrained vibrato, great purity of tone, impeccable intonation, and exemplary phrasing. The players prove that brilliance can be achieved without excessive speed; their deeply felt, inward expressiveness communicates with a simple immediacy that needs no external effects or exaggerations. They bring out the characteristic sound of each instrument, with radiant violins, mellow violas, and a deep, sonorous cello, yet their blended tone is remarkably homogeneous. --Edith Eisler

Tracks:

Str Qt No.2 in a, Op.13: I. Adagio - Allegro Vivace
Str Qt No.2 in a, Op.13: II. Adagio Non Lento
Str Qt No.2 in a, Op.13: III. Intermezzo: Allegretto Con Moto
Str Qt No.2 in a, Op.13: IV. Presto
Str Qnt No.2 in B flat, Op.87: I. Allegro Vivace
Str Qnt No.2 in B flat, Op.87: II. Andante Scherzando
Str Qnt No.2 in B flat, Op.87: III. Adagio E Lento
Str Qnt No.2 in B flat, Op.87: IV. Allegro Molto Vivace

Tracks:

Str Qnt No.1 in A, Op.18: I. Allegro Con Moto
Str Qnt No.1 in A, Op.18: II. Intermezzo: Andante Sostenuto
Str Qnt No.1 in A, Op.18: III. Scherzo: Allegro Di Molto
Str Qnt No.1 in A, Op.18: IV. Allegro Vivace
Oct in E flat, Op.20: I. Allegro Moderato Ma Con Fuoco
Oct in E flat, Op.20: II. Andante
Oct in E flat, Op.20: III. Scherzo
Oct in E flat, Op.20: IV. Presto

Customer Reviews:

Precision and elegance, awsome quintet.......2006-03-13

I agree with the other reviewer, the Scherzo from the Octet is wonderfull, there aren't many recordings out there with such high level of chamber playing.
I must also mention the L'Archibudelli recording of the Octet. Though not as clean, it is more dynamic (though this recording is certainly not lacking at all).

L'Archibudelli also recorded the quintet, but I like this recording more.
The strength of L'Archibudelli is also it's weakness, they are great soloists on the expense of chamber work.

As I recommended on the L'Archibudelli review, I would get both recordings since both excell in different aspects.
As for the Quintet, I feel that this recording is the better of the two.

Outstanding - Wonderful Scherzo and Presto in the Octet.......2005-12-30

Another reviewer, Sphaernklang, has written a thoughtful, detailed, and scholarly review of this oustanding 2-CD set. My own review is meant only to supplement his. First, I absolutely agree with his comments about the range of tone color and the clearly audible separate parts. The musicians play these pieces seamlessly, as a unit, while also making clear the different parts played by each instrument.

I have not yet heard L'Archibudelli's version of these compositions, which the other reviewer contrasts with Hausmusik in describing them as "technically brilliant". However, I have listened to these two Hausmusik CD's many times and find that this group is also technically brilliant, while also performing the music with depth, charm, and soul. All of the lyrical beauty of the adagio and andante passages is captured in these recordings. That being said, nowhere is Hausmusik's brilliance more impressive than in their exuberant glowing performance of the Octet, which, as the fourth and final selection on this 2 CD set, may be considered in a way as Hausmusik's finale.

The Octet is performed with consummate mastery, with the Scherzo and Presto having a wonderful energy. The electrifying performance of these last two movements radiates with the musicians' enthusiasm and their love for the music. Amidst the unending deluge of adagio compilation CDs that have been released, there are occasionally a few compilations of energetic classical music. If EMI decides to release this kind of compilation, Hausmusik's outstanding performance of the Octet's last two movements will hopefully be included.

The sound quality of these digital recordings is excellent.

The CD instert has an interesting short essay in English, translated into German, and a different short essay in French that is also well-written and informative.

Mendelsohn:Octet, Quintets, Quartet.......2005-09-03

This is a first-rate CD with excellent performers and great recording values!

Great value period performance with depth and commitment.......2001-06-11

I bought this set after a slight disappointment with L'Archibudelli's disc of the quintets. Not only is this one cheaper, it has twice as much music and I prefer the performances. I listened to the A major quintet in both versions and the obvious difference is in the pitch and the overall sound. Hausmusik (H) is lower in pitch and the sound is richer, warmer, with less high frequencies, while the modern pitch that L'Archibudelli (A) use results in a brilliant, highly polished sound, almost as if there were four violins rather than two and two violas.

There are two main effects on the music: first, when there are several lines at once in the music it is difficult to disentangle them in A, the upper instruments tend to get in each other's way. In H the inner parts are much more clearly audible because of the distinctive darker colour of the violas and the less assertively bright violin sound. This is particularly noticeable in the middle of the 1st movement where violas have important low-placed figures while the violins have the main melody; also at one point in the last movement, you can even hear a humble viola accompaniment if you listen carefully to H, but it doesn't get a chance in A.

Second, the range of tone colour in H is much greater, since the viola sound is clearly different from the violins. The best example is at the beginning of the slow movement: there is a particular hushed, dark, intimate quality to H which is lacking in the other performance. This is one place where the composer's life really did influence the music - the movement was a tribute to a friend who had recently died, so a dark elegaic quality is appropriate. Also, in the whole piece in fact, H has more contrast between loud and soft.

Other aspects also favoured this performance. The leader of A, while throwing off semiquavers with the best of them, is somewhat at a loss in sustaining long melodic lines, and suffers at times from a wobbly bow when trying to play softly. In the slow movement marked "sostenuto", the main melody is anything but, being cut into bar-long pieces by the "expressive" phrasing. H is not ideal in this either, but does give a sense of a continuous melody. At one point in the last movement a new theme in long notes comes in on the first violin and is passed to the other instruments. All the players in A and H play it legato - except the leader of A, who for some reason plays the crucial first entry in a light, detached way, as if it was just another accompanying part, or even not noticing that it's an important new theme! Musically it makes little sense, because the other instruments then seem to contradict the first violin rather than replying to or imitating it.

Most of the tempos were quite similar, but the 3rd movement scherzo is quicker in H, which along with the darker tone quality creates more character in the music, an hushed, frantic, almost conspiratorial fugue which foreshadows other Mendelssohn scherzos. In comparison A sounds like a counterpoint exercise.

Tracks:

Str Qt in F, Op.3, No.5: Andante Cantabile
Str Qt in D, Op.76, No.5: Finale - Presto
Str Qt in E, Op.13, No.5: Minuetto (Con Un Poco Di Moto)
Cl Qnt in A, K.581: Larghetto
Gtr Qnt in D, G.448: Fandango
Str Qt No.13 in a, Op.29, D.804: Andante
Str Qt No.3 in D, Op.44, No.1: Andante Espressivo Ma Con Moto
Str Qt No.2 in D: Nocturne - Andante
Str Qt No.1 in D, Op.11: Andante Cantabile
Str Qt No.12 in F, Op.96, 'American': Finale - Vivace Ma Non Troppo
Str Qt No.9 in E Flat, Op.117: Allegretto

Average customer rating:

Good, but not the best

String Quintets
Mendelssohn , Mann , and Mendelssohn String Quartet
Manufacturer: Bis
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000068R3C
Release Date: 2002-06-18

Customer Reviews:

Good, but not the best.......2003-08-19

I enjoyed this, as music, performance and recording, without being bowled over by it.

The first quintet is an early work and the second a quite late one. They are both striking works, full of contrasting moods. The first is the more lyrical of the two, with a "typical" Mendelssohnian scherzo and a very contrapuntal finale. Its debt to dear old Ludwig is obvious. The second quintet is starker and more dramatic and marks the "late" Mendelssohn's return to the emotional intensity of his younger works, certainly compared to the relative calm of other late chamber and piano works.

The key words in all this are lyrical, contrasting and dramatic.

The performances catch some of each of these qualities but not enough. The MSQ itself is sure in ensemble and phrasing, with some very well judged tempi (try the slow movement of the first quintet, which seems especially "right"). They are as accomplished as you'd expect from a Juilliard trained ensemble boasting Robert Mann as a guest. However, as in many Juilliard Quartet recordings, the performance is very up-front. It lacks the subtlety, variation, depth and warmth that would make it first rank.

There's also far too much special pleading about what is a fairly obvious debt to Beethoven. We already know that Mendelssohn could be a powerful, romantic composer rather than just the amiable Victorian gentleman he used to be seen as. We know he was under Beethoven's spell as a young man. However, he was a more complex romantic than the MSQ give him credit for. Their performance is all about the power of the writing and not at all about its beauty and subtelty. For too much of the time, you get tempestuousness without relief.

True drama requires contrast, some tragedy, some comedy, some pathos, some joy. There is insufficient contrast here to give us any more than a one-dimensional Mendelssohn.

You only need to listen to the Raphael Ensemble's marvellous recording of these two pieces on Hyperion to instantly hear "more" of Mendelssohn. And Hyperion's recording matches that performance with warmth, depth and an even more natural tone than the BIS.

Not that the BIS recording is poor, - far from it. The sound is, in fact, very, very good in many respects, typical BIS. The stereo soundstage is very natural, - the instruments are presented as in live performance, as a semi-circle and the recording spreads them enough to hear all the interplay but not so far apart that it feels too "big" for a domestic listening room. It's really well judged in that regard. Its also a very clean and quiet recording, - microphones very well positioned - not too close, not too far away.

As a recording its well attuned to the MSQ's performance, - terrific but monochromatic. Which influences the other the most, - the in your face performance or the expert but dry recording, is a chicken and egg question i can't answer.

Tracks:

Pastorale - Zoltan Tokos
Intermezzo In E Flat Major, Op. 117, No. 1 - Idil Biret
Adagio - Capella Istropolitana
Ave Maria - Bertalan Hock
Adagio - Northern Chamber Orchestra
Larghetto - Danubius Quartet
Andante - Benjamin Frith
Langsam - Maria Kliegel
Sarabande - Wolfgang Rubsam
Sarabande (Largo) - Capella Istropolitana
Adagio - Kodaly Quartet
Last Spring, Op. 34, No. 2 - Capella Istropolitana
Adagio - Takako Nishizaki

Customer Reviews:

Assorted pearls of peaceful music, artfully strung together.......2007-07-07

"Sarabande" is defined as a slow dance in triple metre usually found in baroque intrumental suites. There are 2 actual sarabandes in this refreshing collection: "Partita No. 1 in B flat major" by Bach, and "Oboe Concerto No. 3 in G minor" by Handel, hence the cd title. However, the other non-Baroque composers and their works do not detract at all from the unity of this easily-flowing composite of peaceful music. Some may object to extracting these adagios, intermezzos, andantes and such, from their whole compositions and beading them together into a sort of musical string of pearls. But I must argue that I feel it works in this case. To be honest, I purchased this collection because I am so enamored with Greig's "Last Spring, Op. 34, No. 2." It is one of his short pieces for string orchestra, and has a lovely, elegic quality. With the music sampler available to aid in the buying decision, "Sarabande" is sure to be worth its terrific price.

Average customer rating:

Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: String Quintets

Manufacturer: MD&G Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Quintets | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

Tracks:

Str Qnt Op.8 in A: Allegro Con Moto
Str Qnt Op.8 in A: Intermezzo. Andante Sostenuto
Str Qnt Op.8 in A: Scherzo. Allegro Di Molto
Str Qnt Op.8 in A: Allegro Vivace
Str Qnt Op.87 in B flat: Allegro Vivace
Str Qnt Op.87 in B flat: Andante Scherzando
Str Qnt Op.87 in B flat: Adagio E Lento
Str Qnt Op.87 in B flat: Allegro Molto Vivace

Average customer rating:

Piano Quintets Op 1 & 2
Mendelssohn , and Chicago String Trio
Manufacturer: Antes
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD
ASIN: B00008EOIK
Release Date: 1995-08-01

Mendelssohn: String Quintets 1 & 2 - L'Archibudelli

Average customer rating:

I liked the Octet recording better
Very clear recording, sometimes oversophisticated (snif)

Mendelssohn: String Quintets 1 & 2 - L'Archibudelli
L'Archibudelli
Manufacturer: Sony
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Quintets | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

Classical Music | The Sony BMG Masterworks Store | Amazon.com Label Stores | Stores | Music
ASIN: B00004S38N
Release Date: 2000-03-21

Amazon.com

This is music to put a smile on your face and joy into your heart. Written 20 years apart, the two quintets are very different in mood and character, but both are masterpieces; why they are so rarely played is a mystery. The first is all airy lightness and sunshine, full of melting, soaring melodies, with a warm, expressive slow movement, a Scherzo that is not only scintillating, but contrapuntally masterful, and a brilliant Finale. The second is more fiery, urgent, and passionate, the texture fuller and richer; the Scherzo is ironic, rustic; the slow movement is lamentatious and tragic, but ends triumphantly. The playing is simply splendid. L'Archibudelli, a distinguished period-instrument group, uses normal tuning and what seems a modified romantic approach, with restrained vibrato, great purity of tone, impeccable intonation, and exemplary phrasing. The players prove that brilliance can be achieved without excessive speed; their deeply felt, inward expressiveness communicates with a simple immediacy that needs no external effects or exaggerations. They bring out the characteristic sound of each instrument, with radiant violins, mellow violas, and a deep, sonorous cello, yet their blended tone is remarkably homogeneous. --Edith Eisler

Customer Reviews:

I liked the Octet recording better.......2006-03-13

This is a good recording, but I was more impressed with this ensembles' recording of the Octet.

I am inclined to recommend Hausmusik London recording of this piece over this one.

Very clear recording, sometimes oversophisticated (snif).......2001-03-12

The Mendelssohn quintets are rarely performed or recorded, so any new recording is welcome. L' Archibudelli come from the historically-informed school of performance (using gut strings, for example) and their recording is nearly unique in this. If you are allergic to the period-instrument string sound - it tends to be leaner and more "reedy" - then you will not like this disk, but I found it easy to get used to, in these works where the interpretation is more important than sheer sound quality. There are a few loud passages where I felt that the instruments are being forced too hard and the tone becomes harsh, but overall it is not a problem.

The performances have precision, plenty of energy and enthusiasm, and delicacy in many places where it is required, and sometimes reach the rare point where the music seems to be speaking to the listener directly, where you would not want to change anything about the interpretation. However, I did not like all aspects of the playing: the group seemed to be trying too hard to make the music "expressive", putting in extra nuances which sometimes detracted from the direct expression of the music. Also the tempo for the second quintet's slow movement (marked Adagio e lento) seemed much too fast, maybe missing some of the depth of the music.

But the worst fault is the (very audible) SNIFFING! I don't know how string players get away with this, maybe they believe it makes them more rhythmical, but the recording is so clear that I could hear every contraction of a player's nostrils. It's very distracting, particularly when a rest in the music (intended to be a silence!) is filled by an nasal intake of breath, or at various points when it seems to be necessary to some violinist's interpretation to sniff regularly, once a bar. Perhaps the recording could be remastered to reduce this!

So, not my favourite chamber-music disk, but if you don't mind the sniffing then you won't regret buying it. I bought the set of the same music with the Octet and Quartet no.2 performed by Hausmusik - see that review, where I compare the two, much to the benefit of the Hausmusik recording.

Track Listings:

Track Listings

track listings

Track Listings

Ambrosia - The Essentials [Original recording remastered]

Essential Classics

Free & Equal Blues

3 Compositions of New Jazz

Mantra [Import]

Divorcing Neo 2 Marry Soul [Clean]

Greatest Rock and Roll Songs

Four Centuries: Music of Eric Coates

Joanna [Import]

Damn!

Gutterflower [Enhanced]

El Feeling De Cesar Portillo De La Luz [Import]

Con Guitarra y Banda

Mother's Child

Goin' Back Home