Octet in Eb Major, Op.20
Throughout the work, each of the eight instruments is used somewhat differently to achieve maximum musical contrast within an overall context of sonic equilibrium. The octet has remained a favourite of string players, chamber-music lovers, and general audiences alike. Even the composer himself regarded it highly: We welcome suggested improvements to any of our articles. You can make it easier for us to review and, hopefully, publish your contribution by keeping a few points in mind.
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Like its predecessors but unlike…. As it happened, our ever resourceful librarian, Marcia Farabee, found a set of parts for those instruments--but she did not know who had added them. Of course it was not Mendelssohn himself, even though he did produce a version of the scherzo for full orchestra.
When I saw the actual handwritten parts for the basses, a light bulb went on over my head: I asked Marcia to see if we still had the parts for "The Star-Spangled Banner" as arranged by Toscanini, which we performed a few years ago as part of a series of orchestrations of our National Anthem by various composers and conductors.
Sure enough, that material was still here. We knew that the parts for that arrangement had actually been copied out by the Maestro in his own hand--and the added double bass parts for the Mendelssohn Octet are clearly in the same hand. So what we are playing this week is the traditional published version of the Mendelssohn, with an expanded group of strings, and with the bass parts added by Toscanini. In , when Mendelssohn composed his Octet, Beethoven, Schubert and Weber were still alive and still active.
Schubert had composed his own Octet in F major--a work for winds and strings following the pattern of Beethoven's early Septet--only the previous year. This work by the year-old Mendelssohn clearly confirmed his right to stand beside such illustrious colleagues; it was in fact the work that marked the beginning of his maturity as a composer.
String Octet, Op.20 (Mendelssohn, Felix)
He reconfirmed that status the following year with his no less remarkable Overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream. By that time he had been composing for several years and had piled up a dozen symphonies for strings, numerous concertos and some chamber music which he chose not to publish, regarding those works as mere juvenilia. He had also composed his first mature symphony, which he labeled "No.
The String Quartets Nos. Without suggesting additional instruments.
The composer indicated in the score that his Octet was to be played "by all the instruments in symphonic orchestral style. Pianos and fortes must be strictly observed and more strongly emphasized than is usual in pieces of this character. In its orchestral garb with winds and drums this piece became the grandest and most dazzling specimen of Mendelssohn's "elfin" scherzo style, surpassing even the brilliance of the one he was to compose later for A Midsummer Night's Dream as well as all his others irrespective of instrumentation.
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Nothing is missing in the original string setting in the way of fantasy or color, and the chamber-music origins aren't hinted at in the orchestral one; Mendelssohn in effect created two distinctly characterized gems from the same basic material. While both versions are treasurable, listeners familiar with the orchestral one alone may be happily surprised to discover how effective the piece is in its original setting for strings alone, and how splendidly it relates to the rest of the work of which it is a part.
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Octet (Mendelssohn) - Wikipedia
Complete Recordings on Deutsche Grammophon. The Complete Stereo Collection, Remastered. Complete Recordings on Deutsche Grammophon and Philips. The Magic of Jascha Heifetz Remastered. Works for Piano Duo. Complete Chamber Music for Strings.
Octet in E-flat major for Strings, Op. 20
The Collector's Edition, Vol. Complete Chamber Music for Strings, Vol. Concerto for Violin and Piano; Octet. The Heifetz Piatigorsky Concerts []. Piano Sextet; String Octet.