Mendelssohn:
Sinfonia X

Korngold:
Sextet

Rossini:
Sonata VI

Undeniably, the three composers sound like adults, each in his own way. Rossini was twelve when he wrote his Sonata No. 6 for Strings; Mendelssohn was about fourteen when he composed his tenth of twelve string symphonies; Korngold was seventeen or eighteen when he composed the String Sextet. All three works contain the diverse emotional moods that you would expect from adolescents. However, they convey a subtlety and token of experience that do not fit boys of this age. ‘You do not have to experience love to be able to write about it,’ Korngold told his paranoid father.

In Korngold’s case, music transcends age limits. He knows how to consider his great examples Richard Strauss, Mahler and the early Schönberg in creating a totally new language that is both musically and emotionally 'complete' and 'rich'. (from the linernotes of this CD by Vrouwkje Tuinman)