Schubert Octet
A thoughtful, expressive performance of Schubert’s multi-faceted Octet
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Franz Schubert
Genre:
Chamber
Label: Onyx
Magazine Review Date: 2/2006
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 64
Mastering:
Stereo
Catalogue Number: ONYX4006
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Octet |
Franz Schubert, Composer
Franz Schubert, Composer Mullova Ensemble |
Author: DuncanDruce
A spacious performance, enthralling and poetic: it leaves behind the world of happy Viennese music-making (best exemplified on disc, perhaps, by the famous 1957 Vienna Octet recording). Instead, we have a view of the Octet as one of Schubert’s major achievments, sharing much common ground with the other great chamber works of 1824, the A minor and D minor string quartets.
The Adagio is taken unusually slowly, but without any feeling of the rhythm sagging – the effect is unexpectedly profound and meditative. The following Scherzo is unhurried, too, yet is still full of spirit; it’s beautifully poised, with each phrase convincingly shaped. There’s only one movement, the Minuet, where the measured approach is maybe overdone; it’s marked Allegretto, after all, and here the effect is distinctly languid. However, the romantic feeling of the first movement’s introductory Adagio is perfectly captured, and the corresponding slow introduction to the finale, whose melodrama can sometimes sound like a tongue-in cheek shock tactic, emerges here as one extreme of a multi-faceted yet perfectly unified work.
And the thoughtful shaping of phrases isn’t confined to the Scherzo; it’s present throughout, keeping us constantly aware of the music’s expressive power. Even when these inflections seem slightly contentious – in the finale’s main theme, for example – they contribute to a constant feeling of lively communication.
The solo portrait of Viktoria Mullova on the CD cover gives a very misleading impression; the Mullova Ensemble is in fact particularly strong as a team, and it’s notable how she and Pascal Moraguès realise a sense of joint leadership.
The Adagio is taken unusually slowly, but without any feeling of the rhythm sagging – the effect is unexpectedly profound and meditative. The following Scherzo is unhurried, too, yet is still full of spirit; it’s beautifully poised, with each phrase convincingly shaped. There’s only one movement, the Minuet, where the measured approach is maybe overdone; it’s marked Allegretto, after all, and here the effect is distinctly languid. However, the romantic feeling of the first movement’s introductory Adagio is perfectly captured, and the corresponding slow introduction to the finale, whose melodrama can sometimes sound like a tongue-in cheek shock tactic, emerges here as one extreme of a multi-faceted yet perfectly unified work.
And the thoughtful shaping of phrases isn’t confined to the Scherzo; it’s present throughout, keeping us constantly aware of the music’s expressive power. Even when these inflections seem slightly contentious – in the finale’s main theme, for example – they contribute to a constant feeling of lively communication.
The solo portrait of Viktoria Mullova on the CD cover gives a very misleading impression; the Mullova Ensemble is in fact particularly strong as a team, and it’s notable how she and Pascal Moraguès realise a sense of joint leadership.
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