Octets: Mendelssohn & Enescu

Two of the world’s leading string quartets, the Ebène and the Belcea, come together to perform octets written 75 years apart by two phenomenally gifted teenage composers, Felix Mendelssohn and George Enescu. The two ensembles, the Ebène based in Paris and the Belcea in London, first joined forces almost a decade ago and have developed their collaboration since then. When they played the Mendelssohn and Enescu octets in Philadelphia in November 2024, The Strad – an authoritative voice in the world of string music – wrote: “ … Mendelssohn’s youthful high spirits came through with gleaming ardour. The phrase ‘luxury casting’ gets tossed around a lot, but seemed entirely appropriate here, as these two distinguished groups effortlessly fused their expertise – and had a blast doing it. The gutsy results had many people in the audience standing before the interval …. One of the high points [of the Enescu Octet] was the end of the first movement, as the prayerful tone grew ever softer in the final bars. The plotting of the vast structure was a marvel – Wagnerian in scope – capturing all of the composer’s colours, without ebbing in energy or focus … Needless to say, it was quite an afternoon.” 

While Pierre Colombet, first violinist of Quatuor Ébène, takes the lead in the Mendelssohn, Corinna Belcea, founder of the eponymous quartet, captains the eight-person ensemble in the Enescu. Though UK-trained (the Yehudi Menuhin School and Royal College of Music), she, like George Enescu, was born in Romania. He was just 18, and living in Paris, when he wrote his octet in 1900, while Mendelssohn was even younger – a mere 16 years old – when he composed his octet in 1825 as a birthday gift for his violin teacher, Eduard Rietz. Mendelssohn instructed the performers to play “in symphonic orchestral style. Pianos and fortes must be strictly observed and more strongly emphasised than is usual in pieces of this character.” The performance by the Ébène-Belcea pairing at London’s Wigmore Hall in 2024 prompted Bachtrack to write that: “These eight players … seemed less interested in fairyland Mendelssohn than in uncovering darker Romantic undertones. The organ-like sonorities they produced in the opening movement compelled attention, with sinister interjections from the violas and an exploration of hidden corners along the direction of travel.”

If Mendelssohn’s mastery played a defining role in music of the 19th century, Enescu, as an emblematic figure of the earlier 20th century, is remarkable for his synthesis of influences: he studied in Vienna and Paris (with Massenet and Fauré) and, as Raphaël Merlin (former cellist of Quatuor Ebène) writes in his note for the album: “ … He absorbed the orchestral prowess of Richard Strauss, ‘Impressionist’ French harmony as pioneered by Debussy, rhetorical structure in the vein of Beethoven, and a Wagnerian sense of temporal scale …” More than that, Enescu’s style is informed by the spirit of traditional Romanian music. 

Further describing the Wigmore Hall concert, Bachtrack wrote that Enescu’s octet “offers not only remarkable tenderness, it  bristles with volcanic turbulence. From its first bars, characterised by animal-like savagery, the impetuosity of the second movement, marked Très fougueux, held me in thrall … The final movement conjured up astonishing waves of sound, passion pouring forth from every pore, bows deployed with manic power, moments of sheer ecstasy. A quite thrilling conclusion.” After the ensemble’s Carnegie Hall concert of the same repertoire in 2024, the New York-based magazine The New Criterion enthused that “ … the third movement, a slow movement, was sublime. It began with a beauty that was almost self-effacing. Then it was built, nobly. The closing movement had the virtue of freedom within structure. The players were playing with heart, and head, and unity.”