Felix Mendelssohn’s String Quartet in F minor, Op. 80 is one of the most charged works of his final years — and the Consone Quartet captures in this video its second movement, Allegro assai, with a precision and intensity that feel inseparable from the music’s origins. Written in 1847, shortly after the sudden death of his sister Fanny, the quartet is a document of grief: restless, biting and unsettled, its urgent outer movements interrupted only briefly by moments of lyrical suspension.
This video forms part of Consone’s broader Mendelssohn cycle with Linn Records. Their newest album brings together three works: the String Quartet in E minor, Op. 44 No. 2 (composed in 1837 and revised in 1839), Fanny Mendelssohn’s String Quartet in E-flat major (1834), and Felix’s late Op. 80. Heard alongside one another, these pieces outline a compelling arc — from the confident craft of Mendelssohn’s middle period to the emotional fracture that marks his final creative months.
Formed at the Royal College of Music in London, the Consone Quartet was the first period-instrument string quartet ever selected as BBC New Generation Artists. Their expressive clarity, attention to detail and natural sense of phrasing have earned them an international reputation, with performances across Europe and North America and an increasing commitment to contemporary music.
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