- Composer: Felix Mendelssohn, Max Bruch
- Audio CD (3 April 2006)
- SPARS Code: DDD
- Number of Discs: 1
- Format: CD
- Label: Naxos
- ASIN: B000EQHS32
- Other Editions: MP3 Download
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 78,696 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
I came across this recording on the BBC Music magazine podcast as it had been nominated for (and I think won) record of the year. It has taken its time to grow on me and only really overtook me when I bought a new MP3 player and began to listen to it late at night as I stood doing the dishes. I won't have Mp3 knocked! I know the best way to listen to Chamber music is ON VINYL in a small, partially lit room in a deep armchair and a very good stereo system, preferably quadrophonic with the deep armchair placed centrally, but headphones can almost replicate this.
The music is exquisite. This is one of those rare occasions where a truly great work of art is given a truly great performance and the one enhances the other. The pace is quick and the Mendelssohnian drive urgent, young, spirited and cleanly annunciated. The players bring a woody gravity to the tone but it is a supple, just-cut, green wood, a sapling wood, which elevates the magnificent, enigmatic octet to the stratosphere. Mendelssohn's ambition for the piece is so great that the stately and the sedate are out of the window and he seems to be straining at the leash, developing a fully orchestral sound here, a pocket orchestra, a mahogany firecracker in the palm of your hand. The sound is clear and crisp, engineering flawless and above all, the intuitive timing and measured breathing of the talented musiucians mean that the folky, sombre slow-movement becomes a bittersweet palette of wry melancholy and the puckish third movement almost has this listener laughing out loud with its sheer joy. As for the fugue... Well, it has a kind of manic urgency which suggests the 8 players are slowly slipping down hill and playing for their very lives.
A revelatory, delightful and full-blooded masterpiece, one of the best CD's I have ever purchsed, one I listen to two or three times a day at the moment and a real bargain on the not often superlative NAXOS, To be highly reccomended to fans of chamber music, Mendelssohn and simply, a good time.
The music is exquisite. This is one of those rare occasions where a truly great work of art is given a truly great performance and the one enhances the other. The pace is quick and the Mendelssohnian drive urgent, young, spirited and cleanly annunciated. The players bring a woody gravity to the tone but it is a supple, just-cut, green wood, a sapling wood, which elevates the magnificent, enigmatic octet to the stratosphere. Mendelssohn's ambition for the piece is so great that the stately and the sedate are out of the window and he seems to be straining at the leash, developing a fully orchestral sound here, a pocket orchestra, a mahogany firecracker in the palm of your hand. The sound is clear and crisp, engineering flawless and above all, the intuitive timing and measured breathing of the talented musiucians mean that the folky, sombre slow-movement becomes a bittersweet palette of wry melancholy and the puckish third movement almost has this listener laughing out loud with its sheer joy. As for the fugue... Well, it has a kind of manic urgency which suggests the 8 players are slowly slipping down hill and playing for their very lives.
A revelatory, delightful and full-blooded masterpiece, one of the best CD's I have ever purchsed, one I listen to two or three times a day at the moment and a real bargain on the not often superlative NAXOS, To be highly reccomended to fans of chamber music, Mendelssohn and simply, a good time.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
5 reviews
27 of 28 people found the following review helpful
Two Glorious String Octets by Mendelssohn and Bruch
14 May 2006
Format:Audio CD
The story of the composition of Mendelssohn's String Octet is fairly well known. Written when he was only sixteen and at the same time as his even more familiar overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream, it is one of the glories of the string chamber music repertoire and introduces us to the quintessentially Mendelssohnian 'fairy music,' that light and bustling sound so identifiably that of this amazing prodigy. There are many recordings of this masterpiece and it would be impossible to single any one out as the most impressive, but this performance by the combined Kodaly and Auer Quartets need not shrink into the shadows. These eight Hungarian musicians recorded the piece in Budapest in 2003 and clearly identified completely with its sound world. Their approach is marked by unanimity of style, ultra-clean articulation (particularly valuable in III and IV) and an obvious love for the music. Listen to the heartfelt performance of the Octet's melting slow movement; this work is not just about glinting fairy lights but also about deep feelings and the musicians convey that fully.
The Bruch Octet, Op. posth. (1920) was written only a few months before the composer's death. It was lost after his death and not found and premiered until 1996. It has quickly entered the repertoire. There is a marvelous performance on cpo led by the great violinist Ulf Hoelscher. But this recording is very nearly its equal and has a rather more Mendelssohnian tinge than the cpo version. The work itself sounds as if the talents of Brahms and Mendelssohn had been combined. There is the autumnal late-Brahmsian quality coupled, particularly in the final movement, with Mendelssohnian lightness. Unfailingly melodic, and with sometimes striking harmonic twists and contrapuntal interweavings, the work is clearly a masterpiece. We are indebted to American musicologist Thomas Wood who edited and seamlessly completed the work. (This aspect of the work's history is not mentioned in the otherwise fine booklet notes by Keith Anderson.) Although to some degree modeled on the Mendelssohn Octet, the Bruch differs in that the second cello is replaced by a double bass; it is speculated that he considered the possibility that the octet could thus also be played by a string orchestra. Another difference from the Mendelssohn is that it is only three movements: a Brahmsian slow allegro, a tenderly elegiac Adagio, and the elfin Allegro molto finale. The Kodaly/Auer quartets, plus bassist Szolt Fejervari, play the work with fervor and, again, marvelously clear articulation which is always a problem with a work that has eight independent parts.
Sound is quite good. There is a golden glow around the sound but it does not interfere with clarity and balance. At this budget price and with performances this good, this is a clear recommendation, particularly for those who are not familiar with the remarkably satisfying Bruch.
Scott Morrison
The Bruch Octet, Op. posth. (1920) was written only a few months before the composer's death. It was lost after his death and not found and premiered until 1996. It has quickly entered the repertoire. There is a marvelous performance on cpo led by the great violinist Ulf Hoelscher. But this recording is very nearly its equal and has a rather more Mendelssohnian tinge than the cpo version. The work itself sounds as if the talents of Brahms and Mendelssohn had been combined. There is the autumnal late-Brahmsian quality coupled, particularly in the final movement, with Mendelssohnian lightness. Unfailingly melodic, and with sometimes striking harmonic twists and contrapuntal interweavings, the work is clearly a masterpiece. We are indebted to American musicologist Thomas Wood who edited and seamlessly completed the work. (This aspect of the work's history is not mentioned in the otherwise fine booklet notes by Keith Anderson.) Although to some degree modeled on the Mendelssohn Octet, the Bruch differs in that the second cello is replaced by a double bass; it is speculated that he considered the possibility that the octet could thus also be played by a string orchestra. Another difference from the Mendelssohn is that it is only three movements: a Brahmsian slow allegro, a tenderly elegiac Adagio, and the elfin Allegro molto finale. The Kodaly/Auer quartets, plus bassist Szolt Fejervari, play the work with fervor and, again, marvelously clear articulation which is always a problem with a work that has eight independent parts.
Sound is quite good. There is a golden glow around the sound but it does not interfere with clarity and balance. At this budget price and with performances this good, this is a clear recommendation, particularly for those who are not familiar with the remarkably satisfying Bruch.
Scott Morrison
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Accurate and virtuosic interpretation
25 July 2009
Format:Audio CD
Where the Mendelssohn Octet is concerned, this is the recording to beat. Not do only the members of the Kodaly and Auer quartets synthesize well together, but they are excellent musicians as well, and I am now thinking of getting as many of each of their performances as I can. The Auer quartet is also impressive considering that they are not as well known (At least in the U.S.). The Bruch is also very nice and sunny, although I must say it is something of a sideshow to the amazing Mendelssohn performance. Bravo!
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
My Pet Octet
3 Sep 2010
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Mendelssohn's Octet has always been one of my favorite pieces of music. The Kodaly Quartet brings forth the wonderful spirit of Mendelssohn in the most popular first and last movements. However, I think the group conveys a special grace and beauty to the second movement, too. This CD is a "must have" CD.
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