Our Summer BAL 18: Schubert Octet

[verismissimo]

The last time it was BALed was ten years ago and the winner was the Vienna Octet from 1958 and the runners-up the Academy of SMF Chamber Ensemble and the Budapest Schubert Ensemble (which I guess was a bargain choice).

I've only ever had the ancient Saga LP with a mix of the Fine Arts Quartet and the New York Woodwind Quintet, which is indeed fine but virtually unplayable now.

Time for something new, but I'm not really attracted to the 2002 BAL recommendations. Something more HIP?

[JohnSkelton]

I know of two excellent HIPP performances, L'Archibudelli and Mozzafiato (Sony) and Hausmusik (EMI) (which are the two recordings of the work I have). http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_...27archibudelli

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Schubert-Octet-Hausmusik/dp/B00000DNOD/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1345412605&sr=1-1

I think my preference would be for the Sony CD, but I've not listened to either recently (good reason to do so!).

[Tony Halstead]

Another HIPP one is this

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dpopular&field-keywords=schubert+octet+AAM

which shares 2 out of 3 of its wind players with the Hausmusik recording.

Going back to 'modern instruments' there was a marvellous old Melos Ensemble LP but I'm not sure if it ever made it onto CD.
It's sad to reflect that of the original five wind players of the Melos, only one - Gervase de Peyer - is still with us.

[salymap]

And I only have a very old LP, Heliodor 'Hi Fi', purchased in 1963, with members of the Berlin Philharmonic, sadly not named.

[rauschwerk]

Going back to 'modern instruments' there was a marvellous old Melos Ensemble LP but I'm not sure if it ever made it onto CD.

It did, about a year ago, on the EMI Icon series.

[JohnSkelton]

Going back to 'modern instruments' there was a marvellous old Melos Ensemble LP but I'm not sure if it ever made it onto CD.

If it's the recording in this http://www.amazon.co.uk/Icon-Melos-E...5449996&sr=1-1 box, the good news is it has . (That will go on my wishlist).

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

Going back to 'modern instruments' there was a marvellous old Melos Ensemble LP but I'm not sure if it ever made it onto CD.

Is it this one, waldhorn?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mendelssohn-Schubert-Octets-Beethoven-Septet/dp/B000EMSICG/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1345449978&sr=1-1

As far as period instrument ensembles go, the combination of L'Archibudelli and Mozzafiato is pretty wonderful.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5160aIv0DUL.jpg

[Richard Tarleton]

I too have an old Decca LP of the Vienna Kameravirtuosi (I think they're called) - but I would heartily recommend the version by Michael Collins and Friends, because it is coupled with Shepherd on the Rocks sung gorgeously by Ailish Tynan with Malcolm Martineau - so much so it knocked the Margaret Price version off the top spot in my affections.

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

I too have an old Decca LP of the Vienna Kameravirtuosi (I think they're called) - but I would heartily recommend the version by Michael Collins and Friends, because it is coupled with Shepherd on the Rocks sung gorgeously by Ailish Tynan with Malcolm Martineau - so much so it knocked the Margaret Price version off the top spot in my affections.

I was at the Wigmore for that concert and it was pretty special. I recall that Collins had cramp at one point and had to go for a wander between movements to release it!

[aeolium]

I would heartily recommend the version by Michael Collins and Friends

I have that version and I agree, RT. I also like the recording by the Gaudier Ensemble. I heard them give a terrific performance of it at a festival in Cerne Abbas a good few years back, before they had recorded it.

[LeMartinPecheur]

The old Decca Vienna Octet version plus the Melos Ensemble one seem to have kept me very happy for some 40 yrs.

Might just be tempted by a nice lively, fruity (i.e. not emaciated/ blanched) HIPP version I suppose...

[gurnemanz]

The last time it was BALed was ten years ago and the winner was the Vienna Octet from 1958 and the runners-up the Academy of SMF Chamber Ensemble and the Budapest Schubert Ensemble (which I guess was a bargain choice).

That Budapest Schubert Ensemble version from 1992 on Naxos was my only CD version until I recently got the Melos via the EMI Icon Box. "Bargain Choice " it might have been but it is very good indeed in its own right.

[martin_opera]

I learnt the piece through the Emerson's recording and felt I was listening to something quite different when I then heard other interpretations - less tense, more joyful - but then also lacking in that meticulous quality that makes the American's so interesting to hear. So I do still come back to the Emersons and marvel at the fact they played this by themselves (two tracks overlapped). Interestingly someone on the Amazon site has put a picture of a sour lemon in addition to the album cover so I sense it's a love it or hate it type of thing.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I learnt the piece through the Emerson's recording and felt I was listening to something quite different when I then heard other interpretations - less tense, more joyful - but then also lacking in that meticulous quality that makes the American's so interesting to hear. So I do still come back to the Emersons and marvel at the fact they played this by themselves (two tracks overlapped). Interestingly someone on the Amazon site has put a picture of a sour lemon in addition to the album cover so I sense it's a love it or hate it type of thing.

Schubert, martin, not Mendelssohn.

[martin_opera]

Schubert, martin, not Mendelssohn.

Ha ha ha. Well there you go - didn't even realise he wrote one! Looks like I've got some CD buying to do - and possibly some new glasses!