String Quartet No. 6 in F Minor

Few works of mourning and remembrance lay bare the bereaved composer’s emotions with such rawness and vehemence as Mendelssohn’s final string quartet. Upon learning in May 1847 of the death of his hugely talented sister Fanny at the age of 41, he poured his devastation and despair into this quartet in the unsparingly austere key of F minor. Stark tremolos and sudden changes of dynamic delineate the unease of the opening “Allegro”, with even the contrasting major-key music destabilised by undulating syncopations. This mood continues in a “Scherzo” that is anything but playful, its edgy cross-rhythms and stinging accents giving way to a sparse “Trio” whose snaking lines offer no consoling relief. Even in the “Adagio”, the aching lyricism of the violin song is continually darkened by anguished harmonic shading and insistent rhythmic accompaniments. The obsessive angular phrases and flaring tremolandos of the finale bring the work to its cathartic close. Within weeks of completing this heartfelt, deeply affecting “Requiem for Fanny”, Mendelssohn himself was dead, aged only 38.