Schubert: Octet in F, D.803_音乐专辑
Schubert: Octet in F, D.803
又名: 舒伯特 八重奏 D803
表演者: Cherubini Quartett
专辑类型: 专辑
介质: CD
发行时间: 1991-10-1
唱片数: 1
出版者: EMI
专辑简介
Schubert: Octet
What might lead a string quartet to add a work like Franz Schubert's Octet for clarinet, bassoon, horn, 2 violins, viola, cello and double-bass to its repertoire, for which the ensemble has to double the number of its musicians? A look at the record catalogue reveals that only groups of soloists apparently feel inclined to tackle this work that is a cross between chamber music, serenade and symphony.
The members of the Cherubini Quartet certainly take their music-making perfectly seriously, but they do not share the wide- spread conviction that the string quartet alone represents the supreme artistic pinnacle of ensemble playing. Free of this constraint, they are happy to add not just one - as required to play quintets - but even several soloists to their existing close-knit group.
This freedom of thought has enabled them to play in a wide variety of different formations. Their repertoire here, for example, ranges from Olivier Messiaen's Quatuor pour la fin du temps through Ravel's Introduction et Allegro for flute, clarinet, harp and string quartet to the above-mentioned Schubert Octet, which they recorded amidst tulip fields in full bloom in the Dutch town of Haarlem. The latter session took place in April 1990, after EMI Classics had already released two other discs with Schubert string
quartets played by the Cherubini Quartet.
The cheerful atmosphere of the countryside is reflected in the character of the music. Schubert composed his Octet to a commission from the amateur clarinettist Ferdinand Count Troger. In form and scoring, the work obviously owes something to Beethoven's Septet op.20, to the seven instruments of which Schubert only needed to add a second violin. After a private premiere in March 1824, the work was only performed once in public during Schubert's lifetime, namely at a concert given by the Schuppanzigh Quartet on 16th April 1827 in the Vienna Musikverein. Schubert had written several chamber works for the Schuppanzigh Quartet, and Beethoven composed his late quartets for them. After this, the Octet fell into oblivion like most of its unfortunate composer's other works. It was only published - like the String Quintet in C,D. 956-in 1853 by Diabelli & Co. However, this first edition contained only the first three movements, which were given the posthumous opus number 166.
Unlike Schubert's personal situation which he owed from 1822 onwards to increasing unstable health, the Octet is cheerful and unclouded in character. In its formal structure it does indeed correspond to a divertimento, but its length and the treatment of the thematic material prevent one from consigning
it to the realm of light music. On the contrary, its fullness of sound, modulatory nuances and melodic richness point rather to Schubert's late works, breaking out beyond the prescribed scope of concertante chamber music. Only the scherzo and the minuet are really conceived within the narrow formal confines of the genre, and even here the music does not possess a definitive dance character.
As in Beethoven's Septet, the first and last movements are furnished with a slow introduction. Here in Schubert, thematic material is anticipated - the dotted figures, for example, are especially characteristic. In the finale, the slow introduction is picked up again for four bars' duration before the coda, and the work is then concluded even more effectively with a stretta. The two slow movements are - as is often the case with Schubert - kept very song-like. Schubert allows the melody in the adagio to develop in the alternation between the first violin and the clarinet. The andante is a variation movement, the theme being taken from Schubert's own Singspiel: Die Freunde von Salamanka (D.326, 1815) - the duet “Gelagert unter'm hellen Dach” (no.12). The theme is followed by seven variations that place particularly high technical demands on the first violin. They are mostly figural variations, i.e. the theme is either dissolved by surrounding melodies or, if it is only slightly altered, it is accompanied by arpeggio figures.
The Octet can be seen as a whole as a work occupying the territory somewhere between the serenade and the symphony. In this recording, the interpreters base their tempo and dynamics on the results of the latest research, as documented in the critical Complete Edition of Schubert's works.
H. S.
TRANSLATION: CLIVE WILLIAMS
曲目
Octet in F major, D.803 -
I. Adagio - Allegro
II. Adagio
III. Allegro vivace
IV. Andante
Variation I
Variation II
Variation III
Variation IV
Variation V
Variation VI
Variation VII (Un poco piu mosso - Piulento)
V. Menuetto (Allegretto)
VI. Andante molto - Allegro
