Elias String Quartet: Mendelssohn Cycle #4 19/04/2024
Felix Mendelssohn Four Pieces for String Quartet Op 81
Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel String Quartet in E flat major
Interval
Felix Mendelssohn String Quartet in F minor Op 80
The Elias String Quartet round-off our exploration of Mendelssohn’s exuberant canon of chamber music works, and this time it’s a family affair.
Fanny and her younger brother Felix shared an unbreakable bond and passion for music throughout their whole lives. From their earliest days, they displayed prodigal talents both as performers and composers. However, Fanny’s recognition and career prospects would always be constrained by 19th century societal norms.
Like many women of the time, she was discouraged from writing ensemble pieces, so her String Quartet in E flat major is the only work she wrote for the grouping. It remains one of the first surviving string quartets written by a female composer.
Felix’s Four Pieces for String Quartet Op 81 have sometimes been erroneously labelled as his String Quartet No 7, but he didn’t write them as a complete work. His unexpected death at age 38, just six months after his sister’s, sparked a surge in demand for his music. The publisher Breitkopf & Härtel grouped some of his standalone pieces together and published them as this set posthumously.
Closing off this Mendelssohn cycle, Elias present Felix’s last string quartet, written as a requiem for his sister. Felix was devastated and heartbroken by the passing of Fanny and struggled to cope with the sorrow of her death. When he finally convinced himself to compose again, he transformed his pain and anguish into his final work, creating an unrelentingly dark musical outpouring of his grief.
Elias String Quartet:
Sara Bitlloch, Donald Grant violin
Simone van der Geissen viola
Marie Bitlloch cello
Elias String Quartet - Biography
The Elias String Quartet’s ability to communicate musical meaning has led to an international following and regular tours across Europe and the US. They have become known for their bold choices in performances in Beethoven; their innovative Beethoven Project, sharing their research for the complete Beethoven string quartets online, demonstrates their musical curiosity and ability to reach new audiences.
They frequently perform in the world’s most prestigious chamber venues, including New York’s Carnegie Hall, Washington Library of Congress, Vienna Musikverein, Berlin Konzerthaus, and Amsterdam Concertgebouw. They recently toured the US and Canada for a complete Beethoven quartet cycle, before taking it to Suntory Hall, Tokyo.
This season, the quartet will make its return to Wigmore Hall, which has been a second home to the players since their breakthrough as BBC Radio 3’s New Generation Artists in 2009. They will return with a Mendelssohn cycle, the programme bringing together the siblings Felix and Fanny. As well as performing the complete Beethoven cycle there, they presented a Schumann series in 2018. They are also regulars at prestigious festivals around the world and this season’s visits includes Schubertiade.
As articulate representatives for classical music, they are often invited to perform and discuss music on radio and have appeared on the BBC TV’s Newsnight programme. They are committed to coaching the next generation of chamber musicians, teaching at the Royal Northern College of Music, where they themselves met and formed in 1998. They also spent a year studying at the Hochschule in Cologne with the Alban Berg quartet. Other mentors in the Quartet’s studies include Peter Cropper, Hugh Maguire, György Kurtág, Gábor Takács-Nagy, Henri Dutilleux and Rainer Schmidt.
They are keen advocates of contemporary music and have commissioned many works by composers such as Emily Howard, Sally Beamish, Colin Matthews, Matthew Hindson and Timo Andres. They also enjoy collaborations with chamber music partners such as Leon Fleisher, Robert Plane, Michael Collins, Ralph Kirshbaum, Ann Murray, Joan Rogers and Mark Padmore, and the Endellion, Jerusalem and Vertavo quartets.
The Elias String Quartet’s discography includes the Schumann and Dvořák piano quintets with Jonathan Biss (Onyx), French harp music with Sandrine Chatron (Ambroisie), Alexander Goehr’s Piano Quintet with Daniel Becker (Meridian), Britten quartets (Sonimage), Mendelssohn (ASV Gold) and the complete Beethoven quartets (Wigmore Hall Live).
www.eliasstringquartet.com
