We can only speculate about how great a composer Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel could have become had she been given the opportunity to entirely dedicate herself to composition. As the string quartet recorded here easily proves, her melodic gifts and technical skills were simply astonishing. The free wandering of the first movement, where the beautiful meditative theme is developed in the most imaginative manner, the sparkling Scherzo “à la Felix” (slightly reminiscent of A Midsummer Night’s Dream), the sorrowful, almost tragic Romanze, the virtuoso, joyous, and contrapuntally dazzling Allegro molto vivace: all are masterful achievements. Emilie Mayer (1812-1883) benefited from the freedom denied Fanny Mendelssohn, and kept herself busy composing mostly chamber music and “Charakterstücke” for the piano. Mayer’s G minor quartet is charming and well written, though not as compelling as Fanny’s. Her treatment of the form remains traditional, and the themes have a little air of “déjà vu” (or rather “déjà entendu”). It is nonetheless a fine work well worth discovering.
Going back in time, we’re introduced to another woman-composer, the Venetian Maddalena Laura Lombardini Sirmen. A virtuoso violinist who grew up in one of Venice’s famous “Ospedali” for orphans, Lombardini Sirmen had to become a singer (and leave her husband) in order to make a living as a musician. If both classically-shaped first movements of these two-movement string quartets are nothing special, the final Allegros are just amazing, full of rhythmic life and surprising melodic ideas. Even though it lacks luster and excitement, the Erato Quartett’s playing has enough polish and sensitivity, while the recorded sound offers a fair amount of detail within resonant acoustics. The choice of works deserves a rating of 10, the performances 8. Chamber music lovers won’t want to miss this one.