Forget about “lightweight”: From the very first bar the young Swiss Merel Quartet disposes of this prejudice against Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. From his last quartet, which opens this new GENUIN album in the Artist Consort series, a tormented, passionate composer rings through – beset with anguish from the recent death of his sister Fanny. And the rhetorical and sonorous performance of the ensemble also acknowledges her unjustly forgotten work. Fanny Hensel’s early E-flat Quartet, with its lyrical and finely shaded colors, need not in any way show deference to her brother’s works. A valuable addition to the repertoire, by no means only for lovers of string quartets!