Schubert: Octet in F major, D803

Listen on Presto Music. Free thirty day trial. Find out more.

A spacious performance, enthralling and poetic: it leaves behind the world of happy Viennese music-making. Instead, we have a view of the Octet as one of Schubert's major achievments, sharing... — Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 More…

Release Date: 31st Oct 2005
Catalogue No: ONYX4006
Label: Onyx
Length: 63 minutes

Gramophone Magazine

February 2006

Editor's Choice

Excerpt, Schubert: Octet in F major, D803

Work length15:10

Album only

Mullova Ensemble

I. Adagio - Allegro

Track length15:10

Album only

Schubert: Schubert - Octet: Adagio

Work length12:09

$2.00

$2.80

Mullova Ensemble

II. Adagio

Track length12:09

$2.00

$2.80

Schubert: Schubert - Octet: Allegro vivace

Work length6:44

$1.00

$1.40

Mullova Ensemble

III. Allegro vivace

Track length6:44

$1.00

$1.40

Schubert: Schubert - Octet: Andante con variazioni

Work length12:09

$2.00

$2.80

Mullova Ensemble

IV. Andante con variazioni

Track length12:09

$2.00

$2.80

Schubert: Schubert - Octet: Menuetto: Allegretto - Trio

Work length7:30

$1.50

$2.10

Mullova Ensemble

V. Menuetto: Allegretto - Trio

Track length7:30

$1.50

$2.10

Schubert: Schubert - Octet: Andante molto - Allegro

Work length9:46

$1.50

$2.10

Mullova Ensemble

VI. Andante molto - Allegro

Track length9:46

$1.50

$2.10

Reviews
Explore

Reviews

2010

A spacious performance, enthralling and poetic: it leaves behind the world of happy Viennese music-making. Instead, we have a view of the Octet as one of Schubert's major achievments, sharing much common ground with the other great chamber works of 1824, the A minor and D minor string quartets.
The Adagio is taken unusually slowly, but without any feeling of the rhythm sagging – the effect is unexpectedly profound and meditative.
The following Scherzo is unhurried, too, yet is still full of spirit; it's beautifully poised, with each phrase convincingly shaped. There's only one movement, the Minuet, where the measured approach is maybe overdone; it's marked Allegretto, after all, and here the effect is distinctly languid. However, the romantic feeling of the first movement's introductory Adagio is perfectly captured, and the corresponding slow introduction to the finale, whose melodrama can sometimes sound like a tongue-in cheek shock tactic, emerges here as one extreme of a multifaceted yet perfectly unified work.
And the thoughtful shaping of phrases isn't confined to the Scherzo; it's present throughout, keeping us constantly aware of the music's expressive power. Even when these inflections seem slightly contentious – in the finale's main theme, for example – they contribute to a constant feeling of lively communication.

February 2006

A spacious performance, enthralling and poetic… The Adagio is taken unusually slowly, but without any feeling of the rhythm sagging - the effect is unexpectedly profound and meditative.

2011 edition

These artists find a greater depth than their predecessors in a work that we all think we know well. There is not only grace, pathos and tenderness here, but also a thoughtful attention to details of phrasing and internal balance...musically a most satisfying and revealing account - and a moving one too

Schubert: Octet in F major, D803

Downloads

Contents

Download queue