Bitte, Mendelssohns streichquartett op. 80

[Valentino]

I miss this one, and need recommendations. I'd buy Melos if it was available, but it doesn't seem to be.

[MichaelRabin]

BBC Mag & CT seem to like the Talich on Calliope. Any comments here?

[Harry Collier]

BBC Mag & CT seem to like the Talich on Calliope. Any comments here?

Yes, I bought the Talich on Calliope and like it very much. For some reason, however, I like best an old and cheap 1989 recording by the Cherubini Quartet. The four players there really dig into this extraordinary and wonderful work.

[The new erato]

Is this Mendelssohns greatest work? I only find a couple of other candidates, the early op 13 quartet and the equally early Octet. I will get lots of flak for not including the violin concerto and some of his more popular orchestral works, but still....from these later works I get the clear feeling that everything was easy for Mendelssohn, leading a charmed life and being prodigously gifted, never having to struggle. Of course you don't have to suffer to produce great art, but these works are merely tuneful, very well constructed and orchestrated without ever threatening to cross the line between very fine music and great f.....g masterpieces.  Much as I think young Schubert would have written if he had been tall, beautiful, rich, healthy and a success with the girls.

With the early chamber works however you get a feeling of a young man, full of youthful "Sturm und Drang", flexing his wings, testing the waters, stretching the established forms and finally taking flight..

And in the late op 80 I only hear the bereaved brother mourning his dead sister, finally producing his great f.....g masterpiece.

[val]

Regarding only the opus 80, I prefer the version of the Lindsay Quartet (with Brahms).

[carlos]

To me, the old Melos recording (as part of the complete SQ)

[Brian]

Yes, I bought the Talich on Calliope and like it very much. For some reason, however, I like best an old and cheap 1989 recording by the Cherubini Quartet. The four players there really dig into this extraordinary and wonderful work.

ArkivMusic has the Cherubinis doing all the Mendelssohn quartets, in a $15 box. Buy?

[Harry]

I miss this one, and need recommendations. I'd buy Melos if it was available, but it doesn't seem to be.

Just wait and try to get this secondhand, and if it is not possible to find it, PM me, my friend.

[Valentino]

Super Harry, thanks.
Do I trawl Amazon Marketplace or elsewhere?