Schubert: Octet Music from Aston Magna
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Music CD Cover
Composer: Franz SchubertPerformer: Music from Aston Magna
Performer: Eric Hoeprich
Performer: Lowell Greer
Performer: Dennis Godburn
Performer: Daniel Stepner
Performer: Myron Lutzke
Edition: Music CD
Format: Import, Original recording reissued
CD Release Date: 2002-03-12
Music Label: Hmf Classical Exp.
Free Music Notes for Schubert: Octet Music from Aston Magna
Free Music Review: Despite some flaws, a good version on period instruments - but there are better ones
Hit: 3 Stars
Other than an early recording by the grand-pop' of all chamber ensembles performing on period instruments, the Collegium Aureum, on Deutsche Harmonia Mundi (late 70s), Schubert's Octet had remained (to my knowledge) the exclusive game of modern instrument ensembles. Then within a few years came a spate of recordings on period instruments, starting with the Academy of Ancient Music Chamber Ensemble, recorded in the Fall of 1988 (Schubert: Octet in F Major D803, L'Oiseau-Lyre). It was closely followed by Jaap Schroeder and the Atlantis Ensemble (Schubert: Octet by the Atlantis Ensemble, Virgin, 1989), Hausmusik (Schubert: Octett, EMI Reflexe 1990, now available on a cheap 5 CD box on Virgin) and then this one by a group spawning from the Aston Magna music festival (Harmonia Mundi, 1991), now reissued in the cheap "Classical Express" collection. The series was finally topped off a few years later by L'Archibudelli and Mozzafiato (Schubert: Octet L'Archibudelli & Mozzafiato, Sony, 1995). I refer you to my reviews of all these.
Period instrument playing is a relatively small world and one of the players from Aston Magna - natural hornist Lowell Greer, remarkably also the maker of his instrument - had also participated in the recording made two years before by the Atlantis Ensemble, while bassoonist Dennis Godburn was to take part in L'Achibudelli's version in 1995. Clarinettist Eric Hoeprich and cellist Myron Lutzke are also stock names of period instrument playing. Period string and winds don't sound as dramatically different from modern instruments as the fortepiano compared to its modern counterpart. Valveless horns are of course fiendishly difficult to play, and Greer's instrument has a surprisingly large vibrato. Overall, wind instruments produce a sound that is more raw than modern instruments, and has more character. Vibratoless, gut string tone on the other hand can easily sound thin and rather sour - which is the case with band leader and 1st violin Daniel Stepner, a factor compounded by the overexposure he gets from the recording, with the winds sounding as picked up from a greater distance. Yet interpretively this version has many nice things to offer - and a few flaws as well.
The recording's sonic perspective is relatively dry, and this is not a version which produces a sense of great symphonic power, but it retains a nice, chamber-music character. The opening Allegro is lively and sprightly, but the players allow themselves more tempo flexibility than what one is accustomed to (witness the passage at 4:45). Yet they are well alive to the more brooding and dramatic moments of the music, as after the repeat bar (8:57). There are a few instrumental deficiencies: Greer seems more hard-pressed in his valveless horn solos than he did at Schroeder-Atlantis' pedestrian gait, and his rhythmic delivery is a bit slack (3:04). Strangely Eric Hoeprich doesn't play the clarinet's little grace note the first time around (2:59) but he does on the repeat (6:33). Myron Lutzke's cello sounds small scale in its dialogue with clarinet at 3:57.
The sublime 2nd movement adagio has fine dynamics from Hoeprich, but his clarinet tone is not particularly silky, and lacks a sense of hushed mystery. The benefit is that I do not sense the kind of blending problems with 1st violin that I did with Atlantis' Schroeder and Stalder. Tempo is broad by period ensembles' standards but doesn't give the impression of being slow, thanks to gently flowing phrasings of the duple-time meter. Likewise, despite Schubert's "Allegro vivace" marking, tempo in the hunt-like 3rd movement is moderate, but the rhythms are snappily articulated and the music has a fine bounce. Still, together with its chamber-music sonic perspective, it is definitely an easy-going, after-lunch fox-hunt (for a more boisterously wild outing go to Hausmusik and Academy of Ancient Music), and the middle trio retains this relaxed and genial rather than dynamic and animated character.
In the fourth movement (one of Schubert's customary theme and variations, this one after a melody from his Singspiel "The Friends from Salamanca"), the theme is zestfully but somewhat fussily phrased. The second variation is dynamic and well accented, the third, taken at a slowed-down and almost lingering tempo, conveys a nice, dreamy atmosphere. In the fourth Lutzke's cello is a bit dry but finely lyrical. But the tango-like fifth variation is a little bland, not as dramatic as Hausmusik or Archibudelli and without Atlantis' fine approach to dynamic shadings. Overall, except in the 6th variation, taken here very slowly, Aston Magna's approach to tempo is strikingly similar to that of Atlantis.
The 5th movement comes as the major let down of this set, due to the adoption of a soporific tempo and mellow, lazy accentuation which, rather than a sprightly march, makes it into some kind of lullaby - and it will aptly put you to sleep, too. The only (and equally unconvincing) precedent I know for such an approach is the Boston Symphony Chamber Players on modern instruments (Nonesuch - see my review). There is also a strange and uncalled for quasi halt at 1:30 (even more pronounced on the repeat at 2:58). Yet the middle trio has a fine rhythmic snap.
In the Finale, Aston Magna's "Andante molto" introduction is spacious but, in keeping with the recording's chamber music character, not as dramatic in utterance as some others. There have been more dynamic and vigorously accented renderings of the ensuing allegro (among them the Academy of Saint Martin in the Fields 1st recording of Philips, Hausmusik and Academy of Ancient Music on period instruments), but Aston Magna strikes an acceptable balance between easy-going bonhomie and urgently exuberant drama (despite not so well-judged slow-downs before thematic repeats, as at 5:56).
This recording has many qualities, and despite its few flaws it is a good version. But there are better still on modern instruments: Hausmusik, the Academy of Ancient Music, L'Archibudelli-Mozzafiato.
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