Molto allegro vivace
Menuetto. Un poco Allegretto
Andante espressivo ma con moto
Presto con brio

Mendelssohn married Cécile Jeanrenaud in 1837 and it was under the influence of this blissfully happy time in his life that he returned to the string quartet for the first time in almost ten years. During their honeymoon he composed the Quartet in E minor published as Op.44 No.2, to which two companion pieces were added in 1838: the Quartet in E flat Op.44 No.3 and the present Quartet in D major – published as the first of the set, but actually the last of the three to be completed, started in April 1838, but not finished until 24 July. It is a work that recaptures something of the untroubled rapture of the much earlier Octet, but almost as soon as the ink was dry on the new quartet, Mendelssohn and his wife succumbed to the measles epidemic that was sweeping through Leipzig at the time. As a result of this illness, Mendelssohn was unable to conduct his scheduled concerts in September, and it was not until October that he was able to resume his duties as conductor of the Gewandhaus concerts.

The first movement of the D major Quartet opens with a soaring, joyful theme that seems reminiscent of the Octet, though within a more restrained and consciously Classical framework. For the only time in his quartets Mendelssohn wrote a Minuet as the second movement. This elegantly-crafted piece is perhaps an indication of the more refined but less progressive approach of his music at the time, something that the Mendelssohn biographer Eric Werner attributed to the composer’s domestic bliss, and his ‘wish to please and impress Cécile.’ Werner went so far as to suggest that this ‘weakened his artistic integrity’, a claim that seems to be firmly contradicted by the effectiveness of the D major Quartet. The Andante espressivo is a gentle interlude before the exciting finale: launched with a tremendous energy that is sustained almost throughout and which brings the work to a rousing conclusion. The first performance was given from the composer’s manuscript on 16 February 1839 in the Leipzig Gewandhaus, played by a quartet led by Ferdinand David. Schumann described the character of his friend Mendelssohn’s music of this period with typical perceptiveness: ‘A smile hovers round his mouth, but it is that of delight in his art, of quiet self-sufficiency in an intimate circle.’

Nigel Simeone © 2011