Joachim Raff; Felix Mendelssohn - String Octets (Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Chamber Ensemble)

Information

Composer: Joachim Raff; Felix Mendelssohn

1. Mendelssohn - String Octet in E flat major, Op. 20: I. Allegro moderato ma con fuoco
2. Mendelssohn - String Octet in E flat major, Op. 20: II. Andante
3. Mendelssohn - String Octet in E flat major, Op. 20: III. Scherzo. Allegro leggierissimo
4. Mendelssohn - String Octet in E flat major, Op. 20: IV. Presto
5. Raff - String Octet in C major, Op. 176: I. Allegro
6. Raff - String Octet in C major, Op. 176: II. Allegro molto
7. Raff - String Octet in C major, Op. 176: III. Andante moderato
8. Raff - String Octet in C major, Op. 176: IV. Vivace

Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Chamber Ensemble
Kenneth Sillito, violin
Malcolm Latchen, violin
Josef Fröhlich, violin
Robert Heard, violin
Robert Smissen, viola
Stephen Tees, viola
Stephen Orton, cello
Roger Smith, cello

Date: 1989
Label: Chandos
https://www.chandos.net/products/catalogue/CHAN%208790

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Review

When the ASMF Chamber Ensemble recorded Mendelssohn's Octet last year only one player remained who could have had memories of the 1978 ASMF/Philips recording listed above. The almost complete change of personnel has brought a very different new performance. In the first movement there is a slightly reserved quality in the playing: the music is performed in straightforward, uncomplicated fashion but with a slight lack of feeling and personality, so that Mendelssohn's youthful inspiration is not given its due. In the slow movement the tempo is a little on the fast side, and the players move the music on in 2 slightly nervous, hurried manner, as if they are too concerned to prevent a feeling of sluggishness. Their somewhat distant, uninvolved approach continues in the nimbly played Scherzo, and a feeling of busyness, but not much else, pervades the finale. Chandos have provided a good, quite spacious recording, but I'm afraid that this new ASMF version is not nearly so successful as the Philips, which brings out the fresh, eager, yet tender qualities in Mendelssohn's music much more vividly. The coupling there is a very good version of Mendelssohn's String Quintet, Op. 87. Decca's mid-price Vienna Octet release dates from 1972. There is a slight edge in the remastered sound, but the playing is attractively alert and affectionate. This disc also contains a delightful performance of Beethoven's Septet.

Collectors of unusual repertoire will welcome the appearance of Raff's Octet. This is a pleasant accomplished, but somewhat meandering work whose ideas tend to show promise and then burn out rather quickly. Here the ASMF players seem more stimulated by the unusual repertoire and provide a very sympathetic, attractive Performance.

-- Gramophone

More reviews:
http://www.amazon.com/Octet-Mendelssohn/dp/B000000AJP

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Joachim Raff (May 27, 1822 – June 24 or June 25, 1882) was a German-Swiss composer, teacher and pianist. He worked as Liszt's assistant at Weimar from 1850 to 1853, helping in the orchestration of several of Liszt's works. From 1878 he was the first Director of, and a teacher at, the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt, where he employed Clara Schumann and a number of other eminent musicians as teachers. His pupils there included Edward MacDowell and Alexander Ritter. Raff was very prolific, and by the end of his life was one of the best known German composers, though his work is largely forgotten today.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joachim_Raff

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Felix Mendelssohn (3 February 1809 – 4 November 1847) was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. He was among the most popular composers of the Romantic era. Like Mozart, he was recognized early as a musical prodigy. Mendelssohn enjoyed success in Germany, where he revived interest in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, and in his travels throughout Europe, particularly in Britain, where he visited ten times. His essentially conservative musical tastes, however, set him apart from many of his more adventurous musical contemporaries.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Mendelssohn

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The Academy of St Martin in the Fields is an English chamber orchestra founded in 1959 by John Churchill and Neville Marriner. The Academy Chamber Ensemble was created in 1967 to perform the larger chamber works with players who customarily worked together. Drawn from the principal players of the orchestra, the Chamber Ensemble performs in all shapes and sizes, from string quintets to octets, and in various other configurations featuring winds. Its recording contracts with Philips Classics, Hyperion, and Chandos have led to the release of over thirty CDs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_of_St_Martin_in_the_Fields
http://www.asmf.org/the-chamber-ensemble/

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