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The string trio – violin, viola and cello – has a much smaller repertory than the venerable string quartet, until you add one more non-string instrument to make a quartet. There is a large repertory for piano quartets.
When you think of piano quartets, you think of Mendelssohn and Brahms, the two composers who wrote the most pieces for that genre. Mendelssohn’s three piano quartets all date from his teenage years, and they were the first pieces of which he was sure enough to publish and assign opus numbers. This is the second of his three.
For Mendelssohn, minor keys tend to be about raw power, and he lets run in sonata format until his second subject in A-flat, which is a real gem. His piano writing is extremely difficult. The exposition is repeated.
Development of the first subject runs through the flat keys, and Felix leaves the second subject behind.
The recap places the second subject in F Major, where it belongs. The coda is based on the first subject and races to the finish line.
