Octuors

Description

The string octet is a rarity, and the works written for this ensemble of instruments (4 violins, 2 violas and 2 cellos) are rarely performed, and therefore little known. However, one absolute masterpiece stands above them, written by a sixteen-year-old composer: Felix Mendelssohn’s Octet, Op. 20. It is hard to imagine that when Svendsen and Bruch composed for this formation (which also interested the young Enesco, and later Shostakovich), they did not have this marvel before their eyes, and did not dream of matching it. Even if that was an impossible dream, their two works are no less splendid, and worthy of being rediscovered.