casalQuartett / Kuss Quartett

Youthful triumph and swan song

After he had heard Mendelssohn’s op. 20 for the first time, Robert Schumann noted that »He wrote the Octet at the age of 15. There is no other composer, neither past nor present, that can boast such perfection at so young an age«. The Octet literally catapulted Mendelssohn’s name to every corner of the European music scene, establishing high expectations of this young man, who was henceforth measured against the myth of wunderkind Mozart.