There is something not absolutely right about the first sustained note of the Octet as played here, the clarinet's intonation seeming to drop a little to line up with the bassoon and horn. But the ensemble called Music from Aston Magna (after an American festival of baroque and classical music played on period instruments) pleasingly catches the serious style of this slow introduction and the geniality of the Allegro which soon follows. The three wind and five string players all use period instruments or replicas and seem for the most part to be comfortable with them. I confess, though, that I had a few further doubts about Eric Hoeprich's clarinet part, so often the leader in the proceedings, and the horn sometimes burbles a little: indeed, the sound of the ensemble as a whole is at times uneasy. But by and large it is agreeable and has a period feeling to it that will give pleasure to some Schubertians. If you doubt whether you are among them, try, if you can, the entry of the four upper strings in turn near the end of the Adagio (track 2, 10'03''), the string sound at 0'50'' in the scherzo, the horn's repeated C below the bass clef at the end of the Andante (fourth movement) and the tremolando start of the finale. The players rightly observe the exposition repeat in the first movement, which lasts over 15 minutes.
Having been guarded so far about the clarinettist Eric Hoeprich, I now gladly praise his solo at the beginning of the Adagio, a movement which the players shape sensitively and which consequently flows rather more naturally than the first. The scherzo also bounces along infectiously. For my taste, the variation-form Andante and the minuet which follows are a bit winsome and over-projected, but others may not share this reservation. The finale has plenty of go, and if the triplets beginning at 3'42'' sound breathless this is partly Schubert's fault for giving this Allegro a 2/2 time signature instead of 4/4.
The recording is close, which, as always, means the loss of a sense of space and a natural dynamic range—for example, the string passage in the Adagio that is mentioned above is marked pianissimo but isn't, and nor is Variation 6 in the fourth movement (8'07''). But it is generally clear, with a proper balance between wind and strings.'