What were you doing when you were 16 years old? If you were Felix Mendelssohn, you would have been composing one of the most astonishing works in the repertoire. And the year after that you would go on to write an equally impressive overture to “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”
Mendelssohn’s Octet for Strings in E-flat is the work that established him as music’s foremost preternatural genius. Hear a 1960 performance from the legendary Marlboro Music Festival, featuring violinists Jaime Laredo, Alexander Schneider, Arnold Steinhardt and John Dalley, violists Michael Tree and Samuel Rhodes, and cellists Leslie Parnas and David Soyer. Holy smokes! In case you didn’t notice, the personnel includes the entire Guarneri String Quartet, technically founded at Marlboro four years later, and then some.
The piece was chosen as another one of our listener favorites. I’ll be continuing to mop up some of last week’s playlists compiled for our “Play It Again” membership campaign, along with some thoughtful choices to commemorate the anniversaries of D-Day and the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. The fundraiser may be over, but, by all means, if you feel moved to support us, you may do so at any time at wwfm.org.
The favorites continue at 4:00 EDT; “Music from Marlboro” begins at 6:00. Join me in commiseration over our misspent youth, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
Marlboro School of Music and Festival: Official Page