Notes for: August 5, 2008
Mendelssohn was arguably the most precocious young composer in the history of western music. When he was only 16 years old, he composed his Octet for Strings, a work without precedent, calling for eight independent string instruments – four violins, two violas and two cellos – and still a repertory favorite with musicians and audiences. Not even Mozart or Schubert produced an instrumental work of such maturity or inventiveness at so early an age.
The following year Mendelssohn followed up his Octet with this string quintet – two violins, two violas and a cello. Without the brilliant originality of the Octet, this work also demonstrated the young composer’s mastery of the classical structures he had inherited from Haydn and Mozart. It also incorporated Mendelssohn’s advances in writing for the violin – advances resulting from his contact as a teenager with some of the foremost musicians of his day.
Young Felix’s achievements resulted from a fortunate coincidence of talent and opportunity. When he was a growing up, his father, a wealthy Berlin banker, made a practice of inviting professional musicians to his home on Sunday mornings to join the family in informal music-making. These weekly concerts gave the young composer a “workshop” in which to experiment with his creative ideas.
But this arrangement had one limitation. In those days, wind players were considered socially inferior, and the Sunday visitors were all string and piano players. Mendelssohn’s early instrumental works, consequently, were for strings alone or strings with piano. In addition to the usual chamber-music forms, he produced 12 “string symphonies” to give his imagination freer rein in varying his instrumental combinations.
Equally important in Mendelssohn’s development, at the age of 15 he began violin lessons with the young concertmaster of the Berlin court orchestra and founder of the Berlin Philharmonic, Edward Rietz. Rietz was seven years older than Mendelssohn, and the two became close friends and colleagues – Rietz was, in fact, the concertmaster at Mendelssohn’s historic performance in 1829 of Bach’s Saint Matthew Passion. From Rietz Mendelssohn gained further insight into the capabilities of the violin, which he incorporated into his music.
Unlike the Octet, which was published as initially composed, the quintet went through considerable revision. Originally the work consisted of four movements – Allegro con moto, Scherzo, Minuet and Trio and Allegro vivace. However, in 1832 while in Paris on a concert tours, Mendelssohn learned of Rietz’s sudden death. As a farewell tribute to his teacher and friend, Mendelssohn composed an Intermezzo captioned “Nachruf” (In Memoriam) as a second movement for the quintet. He then made the original scherzo the third movement, discarded the minuet and trio, and published the work in this revised form as Op. 18.
In composing the quintet, the young Mendelssohn fell back on the classic forms he had inherited from Haydn and Mozart while anticipating the structural freedom and heightened individual expression that were becoming the hallmarks of Romantic music.
The first movement, allegro con moto, for example, is cast in classical sonata form, and its first theme is reminiscent of a Mozart minuet. Instead of proceeding to a second theme, however, Mendelssohn first presents a highly rhythmic transient theme, introduced by the cello and accompanied by slow moving violas. This theme is extended at some length and takes on added importance in the development.
Eventually, there is a second theme whose playful cross rhythms interact with the three-four meter of the first theme. All of these elements are subjected in the long development to skilled contrapuntal treatment and harmonic warmth leading to an impressive climax.
The Intermezzo, andante sostenuto, is also in 3/4 rhythm and sonata form and is the emotional heart of the quintet. In addition to being a memorial to Rietz, Mendelssohn wanted to pay tribute to another violinist, Pierre Marie Baillot, a concert artist who was then bringing Mendelssohn’s new compositions to the attention of Parisian audiences. The texture, consequently, takes on the concerto-style of violin writing, exploiting the full expressive range of the two violins, while preserving the independent parts characteristic of chamber music for the other instruments. Note also the brief four-note descending figure that starts the main theme and the way it is movingly used to add pathos throughout the movement.
The third movement, allegro di molto, is the Scherzo, although it departs from convention in being in duple rather than triple time and has no contrasting “trio.” It is another example of the light, tripping, “fairyland” scherzos that Mendelssohn originated in the Octet and became his specialty. The mock-serious theme is introduced canonically – that is, in overlapping entrances first by the second viola, then sequentially by the first viola, second violin, cello, and first violin.
The fourth movement, allegro vivace, is in the sonata-rondo form that was a favorite of Mozart. The main theme recurs as a refrain with intervening episodes, but one of the episodes is a development of the main theme. In this case, the Mendelssohn touch is the incorporation in the development of five-part counterpoint, with two fugal episodes, and the final blending of all these elements into the brilliant conclusion.