The three works on this album were composed between 1820 and 1827, when Mendelssohn was a teenager and Schubert was only 23.
Composer Biography
Both Felix Mendelssohn and Franz Schubert played the violin and viola, took part in chamber music performances, and composed a significant amount of string chamber music.
Composition History
Mendelssohn's String Quartet in A Minor, Opus 13, written in 1827, was deeply influenced by Beethoven's quartets, composed just months after Beethoven's death.
Composition History
Mendelssohn completed his Octet for Strings in E-flat Major, Opus 20, one of his finest early works, in October 1825 when he was only 16 years old.
Composer Biography
Felix Mendelssohn and Franz Schubert, though contemporaries, never met; Schubert likely never knew of Mendelssohn, but Mendelssohn was aware of Schubert's music.
Composition History
Schubert's Quartettsatz in C Minor, D. 703, meaning 'quartet movement,' was intended as the first movement of a four-movement quartet but was left unfinished.
Compositional Technique
The Scherzo of Mendelssohn's Octet, marked 'as light as possible,' was inspired by the closing lines of the Walpurgis Night section in Goethe's Faust.
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