Tetzlaff Quartett

If you are to believe Constanze Mozart, her husband composed his Fifteenth String Quartet at the time she was giving birth to their first child in June 1783. The minuet and the trio would have been written at the self-same time as the birth. An anecdote that appeals to the imagination and, like the music, sounds remarkably anxious and restless for Mozart. Autobiographical events also lay behind the 'Lyrical Suite' by Alban Berg. In 1977, fifty years after its creation, the work caused quite a sensation. It then came to light that Berg had hidden in it a secret declaration of love to Hanna Fuchs. When in 1826 and 1827 the late string quartets by Beethoven were published, it opened up a new world for the young Mendelssohn. The Second Quartet in particular shows evidence of a profound study of Beethoven's late quartets. The great management of form and originality expressed in the work makes Mendelssohn a worthy heir to Beethoven.