Adagio non troppo – Allegro non tardante
Canzonetta: Allegretto
Andante espressivo
Molto allegro e vivace

Mendelssohn completed this string quartet on the first of his many visits to London (where he went to conduct the Philharmonic Society). Though it was the first to be published during his lifetime, he wrote an earlier one in the same key when he was 14 and the A minor quartet Op.13 was actually finished in 1827. By the time he composed the Quartet Op.12, Mendelssohn had also written the Octet (1825) and the String Quintet in A major – and it has much the same kind of inspired fluency. The first movement begins with a slow introduction that soon gives way to a closely-argued Allegro. The main influence is Beethoven and particularly late Beethoven – music that was very novel and only recently published. This can be seen in the unusual structure of the second movement (in place of a conventional Scherzo), and in the most unusual way in which the second theme of the first movement returns to striking effect in the finale. The main theme of the slow movement is one of Mendelssohn’s most inspired. In the Finale, Mendelssohn combines something of the urgency of Beethoven with a character that is entirely his own.

Nigel Simeone ©2014