| There's something very appealing about an octet of strings and winds-more clubby than a string quartet, but still intimate. So said Schubert's friends as they urged him to go one better than Beethoven's popular septet: the resulting work was initially thought too long, but it soon assumed its place as one of the best-loved hits in the canon. And for the truly legendary Wiener Oktett it became a calling card. It's wonderful to hear the ensemble again across the intervening 42 years: the sound is not immaculate--the horns wobble a bit--but it's quintessentially Viennese in its direct emotionality and delicate attention to detail. There's a lovely reciprocity in these sweet strings and sighing horns, a blissful confidence in the flawlessness of Schubert's work. Spohr's answering octet, with its Harmonious Blacksmith variations, is not in the same league--it suffers from a Mendelssohnian tendency to labour the point--but it gets its best possible advocacy here. An irresistible record. --Michael Church |
In the post of Indy's orchestral works, parts 2 & 6 don't work, please re-up!!!!
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