Flinders Quartet – The Mendelssohns

Flinders Quartet’s 2024 season concludes with one of its trademark curations: letters between the Mendelssohns interwoven with compositions by the Mendelssohns, Beethoven, and Bryony Marks.

Fanny’s son, Sebastian Hensel, published a collection of family correspondence, and together with other writings from Fanny, this special performance sees the music of Felix explored through his sister’s eyes.

Taking inspiration from Felix’s very successful and much loved incidental music for the play, ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, Bryony Marks has been commissioned to write her own incidental music linking together the dramatic and musical elements of this performance, and connecting these characters and the music that defines them. Felix Mendelssohn was heavily influenced by Beethoven’s string quartets, becoming infatuated with Opus 132 and copying it out note by note in his journal. Like Beethoven, Mendelssohn’s string quartets track his life: from the optimism of his first string quartet, Opus 12, to the tragedy of the last, Opus 80, which was written in response to the death of Fanny. Both composers penned their final notes in their string quartets.

Richard Piper has collaborated with Flinders Quartet on a number of previous projects including ‘Puck’s Dream (after Midsummer)’, the Shostakovich cycle, and ‘Bartok, My Father.’