In 1824, Count Ferdinand
von Troyer, chief steward of the Archduke
Rudolf, commissioned Schubert to write
work to be a companion piece to the
immensely popular Septet of Ludwig van
Beethoven. One can only imagine the
kind of thrill that the young Schubert
must have felt to be placed in such
auspicious company. The resulting work
was the Octet for winds and strings.
Modelled on the classical serenades
of Mozart and Haydn, Schubert’s works
is longer than most symphonies, and
is packed to the rim with the kind of
captivating melodies for which Schubert’s
name is most closely associated. Sadly,
the work only saw one public performance
during Schubert’s lifetime, and waited
more than two decades to be published.
It is often said that
Schubert never really mastered larger
forms, and that his longer works get
bogged down in development sections
that are too long and overwrought, and
that the classicism to which Schubert
adhered in matters of form, makes for
some pretty unbearable repeats. This
is in fact, a fairly accurate assessment,
and when I was broached with listening
to this hour-plus work, I feared the
worst.
To my great delight,
however, I found instead a collection
of shorter forms, as well constructed
and worked out as such gems as the Moments
musicales or Impromptus. The
true delight of this music is the way
in which Schubert captures symphonic
sonorities with a small group of instruments.
In addition, there is clarity of line
that cannot always be achieved with
a huge complement of players.
The Chamber Players
of Canada have come together to form
a very fine ensemble indeed, although
there were a few hints that horn player
James Somerville tended to over balance
the rest of the group from time to time.
In his defense, the engineers recorded
the winds at fairly close range, and
this very minor quibble may have well
been the fault of the microphone placement,
and not the musicians.
This is a disc that
merited repeated listening, and the
music is so tuneful and pleasant that
I cannot imagine anyone not getting
a good deal of pleasure from it. Julian
Armour provides relatively interesting
notes, although he cops out a bit by
stating that music speaks for itself
and needs no particular analysis. It
sounds to this reader like he simply
did not want to take the time to write
a concise commentary of the works themselves.
The program is filled
out with a lovely performance of an
early incomplete string trio. Except
for the occasional balance issue in
the recording, this is a winner on all
counts. Highly recommended.
Kevin Sutton
Chamber Players of Canada: Julian Armour, cello;
Murielle Bruneau, double bass; Jonathan Crow,
violin; Andrew Dawes, violin; Guylaine Lemaire,
viola; Christopher Millard, bassoon; James Sommerville,
horn; Kimball Sykes, clarinet. 