Mendelssohn: Complete String Quartets / Vol. 1

The Quatuor Van Kuijk celebrates the tenth anniversary of it's creation and it's sixth recording for Alpha with a complete set of Mendelssohn's quartets, of which this is the first volume: it opens with the Quartet op.13, composed in 1827, when he was only eighteen years old. 'A trial run? No, a masterstroke! In every movement of this first quartet, we are constantly aware that the sense of urgency is the blood that runs through it's veins. Never before have we heard such tension maintained over an entire quartet', writes Stéphane Goldet in the album's booklet notes.