# What is the greatest octet?



## Guest

There aren't many of them, but octets are complex and fascinating works. Please vote on the greatest or your favorite composition for Octet. I have listed the ones that I know of and I hope this thread will help me uncover more. If you want to post covers of your favorite recordings, that would be helpful also.


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## Guest

View attachment 90883

Schubert Octet recorded by Victoria Mullova


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## Pugg

Schubert: D803, Octet for Clarinet, Bassoon, Horn, 2 Violins, Viola, Cello, and Bass
Gidon Kremer and friends on DG


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## ahinton

Mendelssohn
Enescu
Varèse (Octandre)


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## Guest

Thanks.I'll check out the Enescu. I'll pass on the Varese.


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## Delicious Manager

Another vote here for the Enescu - like the Mendelssohn, a remarkable piece from a teenage composer. Honourable mention to the Schubert.


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## Kjetil Heggelund

I voted for Schubert but I also love Mozart k388 (maybe more in the stringquintet-version)


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## DavidA

Mendelssohn by a street!


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## hpowders

I would also go with the Mendelssohn.


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## Vaneyes




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## Quartetfore

I think that I will go with Mendelsson. but if you like Russion music don`t miss the the Gliere Octet. It is simply a beautiful work.


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## Pugg

Quartetfore said:


> I think that I will go with Mendelsson. but if you like Russion music don`t miss the the Gliere Octet. It is simply a beautiful work.


Any special performers recommended on this piece?


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## Vasks

Stravinsky's Octet...so I had to vote for "Other"


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## EdwardBast

Vasks said:


> Stravinsky's Octet...so I had to vote for "Other"


Yes. That should be on the list!


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## Quartetfore

Pugg said:


> Any special performers recommended on this piece?[/QUOT
> As far as I know there is only one recording, it is the Philharmonic String Octet Berlin-MDG 3081196-2. On the cd there is the Sextet as well. an other very fine work. I heard the Berlin play a few weeks ago in New York, a very great concert!


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## Rhinotop

Mendelssohn!!! Amazing masterpiece of a 16 years old boy


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## Guest

The Mendelssohn is leading as I expected. It's an amazing work. I've been listening to the Enescu thinking WOW. Why isn't this more well known. The performance on YouTube with Janine Jansen is so good I looked for it in CD but of course there is none.


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## Manxfeeder

ahinton said:


> Varèse (Octandre)


Son of a gun; that piece only has eight instruments. I never noticed that before. It sure sounds bigger than that.


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## KenOC

On the Beethoven Octet: This was a very early work, about1792, despite its high opus number. Beethoven substantially re-wrote it asa string quintet, his Op. 4, with (to my ears) an improvement in quality.


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## Heck148

for me -

Stravinsky Octet - for winds = greatest...

the Beethoven, the 2 Mozarts and Schubert are really great also.


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## Bettina

Mendelssohn's Octet is my favorite in this genre. 

I particularly enjoy the finale, in which Mendelssohn alludes to themes from previous movements. I love the way that he creates momentum through bringing back earlier material...such an interesting approach to musical form! Cyclic and yet goal-directed at the same time.


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## hpowders

Bettina said:


> Mendelssohn's Octet is my favorite in this genre.
> 
> I particularly enjoy the finale, in which Mendelssohn alludes to themes from previous movements. I love the way that he creates momentum through bringing back earlier material...such an interesting approach to musical form! Cyclic and yet goal-directed at the same time.


Yeah. It's an exhilarating work.


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## Pugg

Jerome said:


> The Mendelssohn is leading as I expected. It's an amazing work. I've been listening to the Enescu thinking WOW. Why isn't this more well known. The performance on YouTube with Janine Jansen is so good I looked for it in CD but of course there is none.


Wonderful as this might be, I am staying wit Schubert, just a bit more refined.


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## Guest

Pugg said:


> Wonderful as this might be, I am staying wit Schubert, just a bit more refined.


I also like the Schubert best. Not because it's more refined but because it has the varying timbers of different instrument groups. I actually think the composition in the Mendelssohn is better, but not as interesting to my ear because it is all strings.


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## Kivimees

Jean Françaix - Octet for Clarinet, Horn, Bassoon and Strings "A Huit"


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## Jos

greenshot

Shootout between Mendelssohn and Schubert.
Right now this one is on the deck. The "flipside" starts with the very elegant andante. Wonderful music, as is most of Schuberts chambermusic.
This evening the all strings Mendelssohn; you'll have my vote after that, unless I dig up the Beethoven one


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## helenora

never listened to Bruch. Should I? anyway I´ll check it and give it a try ...


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## Lenny

Jerome said:


> The Mendelssohn is leading as I expected. It's an amazing work. I've been listening to the Enescu thinking WOW. Why isn't this more well known. The performance on YouTube with Janine Jansen is so good I looked for it in CD but of course there is none.


Great piece, one of the few Enescu pieces I "get" (1st symphony is glorious!) but..... the others are clouded, and escape me... There is something in his music that keeps me getting back, but no... apart from few pieces, it's locked from me. What is going on??



(sorry for the OT)


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## Guest

helenora said:


> never listened to Bruch. Should I? anyway I´ll check it and give it a try ...


Yes! The Bruch is exceptional. It was not published in his lifetime, written near the end of his life. Unlike the Mendelssohn, it has a bass in place of a second cello, which given better balance to the large chamber group.


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## CypressWillow

Another vote for the Mendelssohn here. An amazingly brilliant work.


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## helenora

Jerome said:


> Yes! The Bruch is exceptional. It was not published in his lifetime, written near the end of his life. Unlike the Mendelssohn, it has a bass in place of a second cello, which given better balance to the large chamber group.


I've listened to it now. And it's really good. Don't know how I overlooked it.


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## Art Rock

Schubert ahead of Mendelssohn and Bruch.


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## bestellen

Voted. Schubert: D803, Octet for Clarinet, Bassoon, Horn, 2 Violins, Viola, Cello, and Bass


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## starthrower

Voted other for Igor.


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## Czech composer

Little addition to this thread.




Reich


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## Guest

Czech composer said:


> Little addition to this thread.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Reich


I got through about two minutes of that before I could not take anymore.


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## DavidA

Czech composer said:


> Little addition to this thread.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Reich


The musical equivalent of tinnitus.


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## jegreenwood

Czech composer said:


> Little addition to this thread.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Reich


I have it in my Steve Reich box set. Not my favorite work of his, but engaging.


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## MadMusicist

Interesting to see the small quantity yet nice variety of octets out there. Some are like large string quartets, others like mini orchestras. 

Anyways, I voted for that unbelievable 16-year-old. No surprises there! 

Speaking of teenagers, Shosty also wrote a nice early Octet that foreshadows much to come. That was all before "stuff happened", but it was unmistakenly Shosty.


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## hpowders

I didn't see all the choices. For me, definitely Mozart K. 388.

Sorry Felix.

The fact that it scored so low in the poll is proof enough of its greatness.

TC is the perfect contrary indicator.


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## Pugg

Schubert still strong at second place.


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## majlis

Joachim Raff for strings. IMHO, comparable to Felix's


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## Mad Cat

A bit late to the party, but...Schubert. For me the Mendelssohn is a close second.


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## Rogerx

Schubert, for me too, followed also by Mendelssohn.


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## Haydn70

Mendelssohn...no contest.


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## fluteman

Stravinsky, Octet for Winds -- no contest.


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## elgar's ghost

Stravinsky's Octet is probably my favourite from the 20th century (not that it's exactly a crowded field...)

Hindemith's octet for clarinet, bassoon, horn, violin, two violas, cello and double bass from 1957-58 is interesting - one of his less-heralded chamber works. In fact, I think it was his last one.

_Octandre_ by Varèse makes up my 20th century 'Holy Trinity'.


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## Beet131

I was lucky to discover Mendelssohn's Octet while in my early twenties. I have loved this piece so much. It has all the freshness and excitement of a truly great chamber work. Schubert's Octet is wonderful too, but there is just something about Mendelssohn's Octet that I will always treasure - one of those spine-tingling compositions that never fails to satisfy.


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## Quartetfore

It may not be the greatest but the Gliere,Octet is one of the most beautiful. I like polls, and like to vote once in a while. But, in the Arts can there ever the greatest?


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## MusicSybarite

The most stirring string octets I know:

Mendelssohn
Raff
Glière
Svendsen
Enescu


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## id0ntmatter

I'd like to vouch for Anton Rubinstein's Octet in D Minor. I haven't studied it yet but from what I've seen, it's quite the killer. It's a typical Rubinstein piece but I think Rubinstein deserves more credit than he is given. He did have quite the influence on Rachmaninoff.


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## CnC Bartok

Enescu! Lovely work. I'd also vote for his Decet. Two extra instruments thrown in for free!


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## Merl

Mendelssohn and Gliere for me.


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