Consone Quartet. Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn - CD Review, May 26^th, 2026

Fanny Mendelssohn - String Quartet in E-flat major; Felix Mendelssohn - String Quartet No. 6 in F minor, Op. 80.

Premiere album, released on November 13^th, 2025

The Consone Quartet is one of the United Kingdom's finest chamber ensembles, with an active musical career spanning over a decade. In 2023, the ensemble released the first album of a three-CD collection in collaboration with the Scottish label Linn Records, a discographic series dedicated to the string quartets composed by Felix Mendelssohn.

The second CD, which I am presenting to you on Radio România Muzical, features Felix Mendelssohn's Quartets in E minor and F minor, alongside the only string quartet composed by his sister, Fanny Mendelssohn. It is a complex work in the Romantic style, structured in four movements: Adagio ma non troppo, Allegretto, Romanza, and Allegro molto vivace. In the autumn of 1829, the German composer wrote a piano sonata in E-flat major. She never finished the score, but five years later she reworked this musical material into one of her most extensive works: the String Quartet in E-flat major. Overlooked for more than 150 years, the score was published only in 1988. The Consone Quartet delivers an eloquent, instrumentally seamless, and deeply Romantic interpretation of this piece.

From the same album, I also present the String Quartet No. 6 in F minor, Op. 80, composed by Felix Mendelssohn in 1847, his last major work, written just two months before his death. The score is widely regarded as a tribute to his sister Fanny, who passed away in the spring of that same year. Consequently, the piece carries a dramatic, tempestuous character across its four movements: Allegro vivace, Allegro assai, Adagio, and Finale, all expressively performed by the Consone Quartet.

Formed in 2015 at the Royal College of Music in London, this string ensemble has been an ensemble-in-residence with the BBC New Generation Artists programme and has won prizes at major European music competitions. They have performed in most London concert halls, as well as in countries such as Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Poland, and across North America. Music education is a commitment for the quartet's members, who lead masterclasses throughout the UK. Another side of the ensemble's work is its recording projects, in which the music of Felix Mendelssohn holds a prominent place.

The Consone Quartet consists of violinists Agata Daraškaitė and Magdalena Loth-Hill, violist Elitsa Bogdanova, and cellist George Ross.