“Schubert At The Piano II“ (1899)
Gustav Klimt
_______
there are reasons why an octet, a
piece for eight performers, would
be a rare occurrence in our modern
world, the most flagrant being the
sheer number of players to
assemble, all with international
commitments, and all, more
specifically, working individually,
or in smaller composites
duos can play any choice of
instruments, trios as well, but
quartets are usually, which is to
say traditionally, comprised of
only strings, first and second
violins, a viola and a cello,
these three groupings, duos,
trios, quartets, are often already
formed, play or meet together
regularly
also musical compositions for such
groupings abound, the canon is
replete with music written for two,
three or four instruments
but at five participants, a quintet,
the combinations are less stable,
there isn’t enough in the
repertoire for four strings and a
clarinet, say, to play, so that a
clarinettist must be invited in
for such an occasion, any
other alternative accompanying
instrument would be fit in as
incidentally
with six, of course, and upwards,
you get egg rolls, anything can
happen
but at eight, an octet, you need
friends, people who’ll gather from
their individual busy schedules to
perform specifically together out
of sympathy, much as friends
would’ve back in the Nineteenth
Century, before television, when
the form took shape, to socially
cut up the rug
if indeed it did take shape, cause I
can think of no other octet, off hand,
after Schubert’s glorious one
Schubert’s “Octet“, the composition,
with this particular octet, the group,
is probably the best you’ll ever hear
of either ever, Schubert’s D803 in F
major is everything you want
Schubert to be, and in a generous
indeed six movements, while
Janine Jansen and her friends, the
octet performing here, with the
requisite four strings, plus a horn,
a bassoon and a clarinet, are
magisterial, dare I say definitive,
the standard now to exceed
octets, incidentally, don’t do
encores, for obvious reasons
enjoy
Richard
psst: for a comparable congregation
of friends, see Roy Orbison’s
“Black & White Night“, equally
as improbable, epic
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