Su	Mo	Tu	We	Th	Fr	Sa
31	1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28	29	30	1	2	3	4

The Raphael Ensemble - Felix Mendelssohn: String Quintets (1998) Reissue 2012

Posted By: Designol

Date: 19 Jun 2022 16:25:17

Mendelssohn was without doubt the most precociously gifted composer the world has ever known: not even Mozart produced ‘mature’ masterpieces while still in his teens. He was also a double prodigy on the violin and piano, an exceptional athlete, a talented poet (Goethe was a childhood friend and confidant), multi-linguist, watercolorist and philosopher. He excelled at virtually anything which could hold his attention for long enough, although it was music above all which activated his creative imagination.

The two String Quintets were composed at opposite ends of his short career. No 1 was written in 1826, soon after the completion of the Octet and E major Piano Sonata and before the Overture to ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, when Mendelssohn was still only seventeen. He later substituted a slow movement in memory of his friend the violinist Eduard Rietz, and it was this revised version of the Quintet that was published in Bonn the same year and is recorded here.

Quintet No 2 dates from 1845 (when Mendelssohn was still only thirty-six), a year before his triumphant success with Elijah in Birmingham and just two years prior to his premature death.

“The most precociously gifted composer the world has ever known.” Annotator Julian Haylock justifiably celebrates a musical talent “which was almost inexhaustible in terms of promise and potential”, though, generally speaking, Mendelssohn’s terms of inspirational reference were more in the realms of sweet remembrances and elfin delights than among deeper climes or lingering shadows.

These two quintets – both of them masterpieces – emanate from opposite ends of Mendelssohn’s career, Op. 18 being very much of a piece with the Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, while Op. 87 presents more in the way of ardent lyricism (Toscanini programmed the Adagio e lento in a full-strings transcription).

The Raphael Ensemble’s smoothly mellifluous performances fall into direct competition with the rather more formal Berlin String Quintet performances on Dabringhaus und Grimm and the more intensely expressive 1970s Sony recordings led by Jaime Laredo. The Raphael’s ecstatic involvement is tellingly exemplified 9'40'' into the first movement of Op. 18, where converging string lines set up some gloriously full textures, whereas the Scherzo’s contrapuntal scurryings inspire quiet-voiced virtuosity.

Both performances convey the shimmer and bustle of Mendelssohn’s string writing without forcing the issue, and the June 1997 recordings (Brandon Hill, Bristol) are well-nigh ideal.

As to comparisons, the Raphael scores for imagination, tonal integration and musicality. Like the Berliners, they honour Op. 18’s substantial first-movement repeat, but neither group quite matches Laredo’s rapt encounter with Op. 87’s Adagio e lento (10'12'' to compare with the Raphael’s 9'45'' and the Berlin String Quintet’s 8'56'', and a more ‘old-fashioned’ – vibrato-laden – approach than either). Of course tempo isn’t everything, but in this instance it does tend to signify that extra degree of emotional commitment. In most other respects, however, the Raphaels pip their rivals to the post and will provide discerning readers with a rich yield of musical pleasure. '

Review by Gramophone

Felix Mendelssohn at Allmusic
Felix Mendelssohn at Wiki

The Raphael Ensemble at Allmusic
The Raphael Ensemble at Wiki

The Raphael Ensemble
Anthony Marwood, Catherine Manson violins
Timothy Boulton, Louise Williams violas
Andrea Hess (Op.18), Michael Stirling (Op.87) cellos

Recorded in St George’s, Brandon Hill, Bristol, on 23–25 June 1997.

Tracklist:

Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

String Quintet No.1 in A major, Op.18
01. I. Allegro con moto (11:16)
02. II. Intermezzo: Andante sostenuto (7:44)
03. III. Scherzo: Allegro di molto (4:18)
04. IV. Allegro vivace (6:09)

String Quintet No.2 in B flat major, Op.87
05. I. Allegro vivace (9:52)
06. II. Andante scherzando (4:45)
07. III. Adagio & lento (8:44)
08. IV. Allegro molto vivace (5:38)

EAC log

Exact Audio Copy V1.0 beta 3 from 29. August 2011

EAC extraction logfile from 4. January 2013, 1:47

The Raphael Ensemble / Mendelssohn - String Quintets

Used drive : HL-DT-STDVDRAM GSA-4083N Adapter: 1 ID: 0

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 667
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000

Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 896 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files\Exact Audio Copy\Flac\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -V -8 %source%

TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:01.00 | 11:16.00 | 75 | 50774
2 | 11:17.00 | 7:44.25 | 50775 | 85599
3 | 19:01.25 | 4:17.62 | 85600 | 104936
4 | 23:19.12 | 6:09.25 | 104937 | 132636
5 | 29:28.37 | 9:51.38 | 132637 | 176999
6 | 39:20.00 | 4:45.00 | 177000 | 198374
7 | 44:05.00 | 8:44.25 | 198375 | 237699
8 | 52:49.25 | 5:37.62 | 237700 | 263036

Range status and errors

Selected range

Filename J:\New Music\Mendelssohn - String Quintets - The Raphael Ensemble\Mendelssohn - String Quintets.wav

Peak level 97.6 %
Extraction speed 4.2 X
Range quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 2C30C989
Copy CRC 2C30C989
Copy OK

No errors occurred

End of status report

==== Log checksum F30D03D46B0BF82FC216A2DF569968FC965A18647D492ECA3FA73938BEE6A6C1 ====

AR log

[CUETools log; Date: 28.06.2018 16:23:49; Version: 2.1.4]
Pregap length 00:01:00.
[CTDB TOCID: CzpVeFUKrs3wyMEZY6mMZTRUa4U-] found.
Track | CTDB Status
1 | (12/12) Accurately ripped
2 | (12/12) Accurately ripped
3 | (12/12) Accurately ripped
4 | (12/12) Accurately ripped
5 | (12/12) Accurately ripped
6 | (12/12) Accurately ripped
7 | (12/12) Accurately ripped
8 | (12/12) Accurately ripped
[AccurateRip ID: 00131358-007c8694-630db208] found.
Track [ CRC | V2 ] Status
01 [9c01ca0c|38259842] (00+04/20) Accurately ripped
02 [e3132af7|d2c1eecb] (00+04/20) Accurately ripped
03 [3432c84b|ee9036fa] (00+04/20) Accurately ripped
04 [fa4579c5|3a4a4866] (00+04/20) Accurately ripped
05 [ed9872d6|a1603c84] (00+04/19) Accurately ripped
06 [a96a7efc|eeab0506] (00+04/19) Accurately ripped
07 [3f826aef|f1fd0a4e] (00+04/19) Accurately ripped
08 [da280261|266bf06f] (00+04/20) Accurately ripped
Offsetted by 1328:
01 [72a03546] (07/20) Accurately ripped
02 [67567b2b] (07/20) Accurately ripped
03 [3669e34f] (07/20) Accurately ripped
04 [641d8280] (07/20) Accurately ripped
05 [76990d3a] (07/19) Accurately ripped
06 [a790fca3] (07/19) Accurately ripped
07 [9e41b0e3] (07/19) Accurately ripped
08 [57a45ea5] (07/20) Accurately ripped
Offsetted by 664:
01 [4fa79688] (00/20) No match (V2 was not tested)
02 [3a35d828] (00/20) No match (V2 was not tested)
03 [9e3100cb] (00/20) No match (V2 was not tested)
04 [2b8e7f8a] (00/20) No match (V2 was not tested)
05 [5448ba15] (00/19) No match (V2 was not tested)
06 [4cdc644a] (00/19) No match (V2 was not tested)
07 [3afd9fa6] (00/19) No match (V2 was not tested)
08 [b57ca59f] (00/20) No match (V2 was not tested)

Track Peak [ CRC32 ] [W/O NULL] [ LOG ]
– 97,6 [2C30C989] [AA14DBBB] CRC32
01 80,7 [09BCB133] [8C5AD54A]
02 72,2 [C50D33EF] [32773532]
03 75,6 [FA49FDD1] [07A2B7A8]
04 85,5 [1714F059] [1918A0A6]
05 95,0 [70002308] [B011BB51]
06 66,3 [38B57DBA] [7DB254F9]
07 95,3 [1A93EEAC] [A7DC12AF]
08 97,6 [5E75CD78] [2CA15DE8]

DR log

foobar2000 1.2 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2018-06-28 19:25:30

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Analyzed: The Raphael Ensemble / Mendelssohn - String Quintets
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

DR Peak RMS Duration Track
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR15 -1.86 dB -23.03 dB 11:16 01-String Quintet No.1 in A major, Op.18 - I. Allegro con moto
DR14 -2.82 dB -23.57 dB 7:44 02-String Quintet No.1 in A major, Op.18 - II. Intermezzo: Andante sostenuto
DR16 -2.42 dB -25.73 dB 4:18 03-String Quintet No.1 in A major, Op.18 - III. Scherzo: Allegro di molto
DR14 -1.36 dB -20.19 dB 6:09 04-String Quintet No.1 in A major, Op.18 - IV. Allegro vivace
DR13 -0.45 dB -19.29 dB 9:52 05-String Quintet No.2 in B flat major, Op.87 - I. Allegro vivace
DR15 -3.57 dB -25.57 dB 4:45 06-String Quintet No.2 in B flat major, Op.87 - II. Andante scherzando
DR15 -0.41 dB -21.73 dB 8:44 07-String Quintet No.2 in B flat major, Op.87 - III. Adagio & lento
DR14 -0.21 dB -19.91 dB 5:38 08-String Quintet No.2 in B flat major, Op.87 - IV. Allegro molto vivace
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Number of tracks: 8
Official DR value: DR14

Samplerate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 634 kbps
Codec: FLAC
================================================================================

All thanks to original releaser

More interesting music in My Blog

90s Classical Lossless Romantic CD-Rip Classical Music Mendelssohn Felix Mendelssohn FLAC MP3 The Raphael Ensemble