Mendelssohn- String Quartets Op.44 No.2 and Op.80, Capriccio

The quartet in E minor, a favourite key of Mendelssohn s, was written on his honeymoon journey. Its immediate success barely outlived him although its formal perfection served as a model for Schumann, Brahms, Smetana, Dvorak and even Tchaikovsky, who drew the essentials of their quartet art from it. The Zemlinskys, trained in the Czech and avant-garde schools, restore its purity of style, as in the final Opus 80, a veritable Requiem for his beloved sister, Fanny, who died in May 1847, and for himself, who would follow her to the grave on November 4th.