We saw a free concert at Peace University in downtown Raleigh last night, playing Schubert's famous Octet.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octet_(Schubert)
This was the first time I'd heard the whole thing, I liked it a lot.
It is very long, almost an hour in length. The instrumentation is traditional string quartet plus a bass violin, horn, bassoon, clarinet. The harmonies for the clarinet, bassoon and horn were exquisitely beautiful. The inner strings were very smart and worthy of focusing on their parts. Starting right from the opening measures you could tell this is an important piece and the famous Schubert sound was on full throttle. Like most of his music, he never misses filling out the bottom octaves. The bass and cello were always pumping out deep fundamentals that filled the hall with a solid wall of sound. 8 instruments on stage sounded like 50. But as a small orchestra, I could easily hear the unique textures of each instrument, including the bass. It was a buffet of tonal detail unsullied by amplification. Acoustics in this little old 200 person Kenan hall are pretty good if you sit up front.
The band was made up of NC Symphony's best players. Assistant principle cello, violin, principle 2nd violin, principle clarinet, assistant principle bass, principle horn. They were all on form, especially the two leads, violin and clarinet. New clarinetist seems like he is 16yo, but he's also principle Eflat clarinetist with LA Phil. Music like this brings out the best in any musician, it forces you to rise to the responsibility of dishing out the spiritual energy.
I'll just come right out and say it, the fourth movement was tedious, boring and annoying in it's length. It is a bunch of meaningless variations on an utterly boring little ditty. He must have been distracted or resentful of his commissioner when writing this. But the other 5 movements more than made up for it. The 1st, 3rd and 6th movements are full masterpieces in their own right. The 3rd movement is a famous tune that you would recognize if you listen to classical radio.
Does anybody know a good recorded version of this piece for me to buy?
