Vintage LP Chamber Music Franz Schubert Octet in F Major, D. 803
RARE VINTAGE CLASSICAL CHAMBER MUSIC
The Chamber Music Society of the Lincoln Center
Artistic Director Charles Wadsworth
presents FRANZ SCHUBERT
Biography by David Brensilver
Franz Peter Schubert was among the first of the Romantics, and the composer who, more than any other, brought the art song (lied) to artistic maturity. During his short but prolific career, he produced masterpieces in nearly every genre, all characterized by rich harmonies, an expansive treatment of classical forms, and a seemingly endless gift for melody. Schubert began his earliest musical training studying with his father and brothers. Having passed an audition, Schubert enrolled at the Convict school that trained young vocalists to eventually sing at the chapel of The Imperial Court. Schubert began to explore composition and wrote a song that came to the attention of the institution's director, Antonio Salieri, who along with the school's professor of harmony, hailed young Schubert as a genius. In 1813, after Schubert's voice broke, he returned to live with his father, who directed him to follow in his footsteps and become a schoolteacher. Schubert begrudgingly complied and worked miserably in that capacity by day, while composing prolifically by night. He had written more than 100 songs as well as numerous symphonic, operatic, and chamber music scores, before he reached the age of 20.
Octet for clarinet, horn, bassoon & strings in F major, D. 803 (Op. posth. 166)
Composition Description by Blair Johnston
By his own account, Franz Schubert set about composing his Octet in F major for winds and strings, D. 803, in 1824 as a means of preparing himself for the task, planned for the near future (and realized in the Great Symphony in C major), of composing a full-scale symphonic work. It was not the first time Schubert had done such preparatory work before proceeding to a full-scale symphony. More than a decade earlier, he had written sections of an all-wind Octet, D. 72 and D. 72a, before moving on to complete his very first symphony. However, in 1824 Schubert felt he was more or less starting from scratch as a symphonist. He had relatively little regard for the six symphonies of his youth and did not even include the unfinished symphonies of 1821 and 1822 in his mental catalog of works. And so, the Octet in F is a significant endeavor of self-betterment, as well as a wonderful chamber music achievement. The work was finished on the first day of March 1824.
Schubert opted to draw on Beethoven when composing the Octet, specifically Beethoven's Septet, Op. 20 of 1799-1800. Beethoven's work is in six movements, as is Schubert's. Beethoven's work is scored for clarinet, horn, bassoon, string trio, and contrabass; Schubert's for clarinet, horn, bassoon, string quartet, and contrabass. The choice was an apt one: Beethoven wrote his Septet as preparation for composing his Symphony No. 1.
The first movement opens with an 18-measure Adagio introduction that sets up the basic dotted-rhythm gesture (now reaching up, now reaching down) around which the Allegro body of the movement is built. The eight players should relish this zestful recollection of Mozart at his most exuberant. The second movement is an Adagio in B flat major with a silver-lined melody for the clarinet — not surprising since the Octet was commissioned by a clarinetist. The third movement is a scherzo and trio in all but name, the fourth a set of seven variations on a theme taken from Schubert's own Die Freunde von Salamanka, D. 326 (1815). The fifth movement is a minuet and trio, this time in name as well as gesture and shape. The final movement's lighthearted walking-bass (or perhaps running-bass, as it is Allegro) and boisterous alla breve tune are prefaced by a slow(ish) introduction of about the same proportions as the first movement's introduction. The Octet's final bars are ones of jubilant delight.
performers include
James Buswell, First Violin
Syoko Aki, Second Violin
Walter Trampler, Viola
Leslie Parnas, Cello
Alvin Brehm, Double Bass
Richard Stoltzman, Clarinet
Robert Routch, French Horn
Loren Glickman, Bassoon
MUSICAL HERITAGE SOCIETY STEREO MHS 4467
SLEEVE IS IN GOOD CONDITION - LP IS IN EXCELLENT CONDITION
14.99
USD
LimitedAvailability