Mendelssohn: Octet, Op. 20

BBC Music Magazine: Chamber Choice of the Month June 2011.

In their first release for the Resonus Classics label, the Eroica Quartet and Friends perform the world premiere recording of the original 1825 version of Mendelssohn’s Octet, Op. 20.
Mendelssohn wrote the Octet in 1825 when he was just 16 years old and subsequently revised the score in 1832 for publication. This recording uses the original 1825 manuscript that is currently held in the US Library of Congress in Washington D.C., and which has now been put together for publication in a new edition.
Played on period instruments and with fingerings and bowings specific to the time, the legacy and influence Mendelssohn gained from his teacher Beethoven, is clear. This edition is immensely expressive and more indulgent than the revisions penned by the more mature, older man that he was seven years later.