Search - Spohr, L'Archibudelli, Smithsonian Chamber :: Octet / Sextet

Highly Enjoyable Chamber Music

dwadefoley | New York, New York United States | 04/02/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I recommend this recording to any fan of 19th-century chamber music. Since a friend introduced me to Spohr some years ago, I have enjoyed his music immensely ever since. This recording is one of my favorites, featuring an Octet, which is really two string quartets playing simultaneously. Spohr weaves them together beautifully. When they play in unison, there is a beautiful sonority and depth one doesn't get with just one string quartet. When the instruments all go their own ways, the complexity is highly dramatic and interesting. The Larghetto movement is especially beautiful. The Quintet (string quartet plus and extra viola) in G is also remarkable, especially the scherzo movement, which is polarized between a frantic introductory theme and a more subdued, but no less uneasy figure. I also enjoy the Sextet in C major greatly. There is a slim booklet included with a brief, but informative essay about Spohr and these 3 pieces specifically. The sound is good as is the performance, although sometimes the soloists falter slightly in some of the more rapid scalar passages. All in all, a recording you will want to put on continuous play while cooking, cleaning house, or curling up with a good book."