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- Verified Buyer
This Musicaphon CD was acquired very inexpensively and it contains what I think are good performances of these less well-known Mendelssohn works that are utterly compromised by the poor transfer from the analogue master tape to disc.I have tried to find out more about the Heutling Quartett on-line but haven't got very far. I appears that the quartet was founded around 1958 and about a decade later recorded a set of the Mozart Quintets for HMV Mozart: Complete String Quartets, String Quintets and some Schubert works, too. The Mozart set was generally well-received at the time but has now been supplanted by many other more recent recordings. The CD contains Mendelssohn's Quintet in A major, Op.18 and the Quintet in B flat major, Op.87. Both of these Quintets deserve to be heard more often as they are lovely and Mendelssohn's chamber music is under-rated.Sadly, this 1978 recording just won't do as the violins and violas are just too screechy and thin sounding, and that's said by one who likes ancient recordings. The recording almost sounds like some of the "hairshirt" performances that some of the very early period instrument performers were guilty of. For a decent period performance of these works, try Hausmusik Mendelssohn - Octet; Quintet; String Quartets or, even better, the long-deleted L'Archibudelli Quintet for Strings 1 in a Major Op 18. A shame, really, as the Heutling Quartett play the works with obvious relish. Not recommended, even at a bargain price.
