Prism IV

For the penultimate volume in their *Prism* series, the Danish String Quartet juxtaposes Beethoven’s penultimate quartet, the *String Quartet No. 15 in A Minor, Op. 132*, with Mendelssohn’s *String Quartet No. 2 in A Minor, Op. 13*, written within months of Beethoven’s death and clearly a tribute to the great composer. The Danes’ approach to this music has a wonderful vitality, energy, flexibility, and, where necessary, poise. When combined with the glorious acoustics of the Reitstadel Neumarkt concert hall, this is a powerful and, at times, rightly unsettling experience. The little Bach “Fugue in G Minor” makes a perfect opener to the profundities of Beethoven’s searching, questing five-movement *Quartet*, whose language, in turn, inspires writing of intensity and deep songfulness in the young Mendelssohn.