Swedish Andrea Tarrodi (born 1981) found the inspiration for her third string quartet, Light Scattering, in the phenomenon of light dispersing through the various shapes of glass. Dagens Nyheter’s Johanna Paulsson wrote that “the piece contains everything I associate with Tarrodi’s music: gorgeous melodic colours and nuances of light as well as birdsong in the cello’s so-called seagull glissando. From the creaky overtones of ringing glass in the introduction to a sacred, swirling drone sound through an interplay between something melodic, and something nearly mechanical – luminous!"

Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy’s slightly older sister, was very prolific. She composed over 450 pieces for a wide array of formats. Her String Quartet in E-flat Major is one of her first works to leave smaller formats behind in order to explore more extensive musical structures. It contains traces of influence from her brother Felix, but especially from predecessor and role model Beethoven. In addition, Fanny has a freer approach to form and tone than her younger brother and this music is both powerfully charged and filled with lyrical elegance.

This performance is by a string quartet composed of musicians from the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra: Daniela Bonfiglioli from the first violin section, Emma Agnas de Frumerie from the second violin section, Catarina Skoog Aquilonius from the viola section, and Josep Castanyer Alonso from the cello section.