Luogo e data di registrazione		Academy of Arts & Letters, New York (USA) - 23/26 January 1995
	Registrazione: live / studio		studio
	Producer / Recording supervisor		Wolf Erichson
	Recording Engineer / Editing		Stephan Schellmann (Tritonus)
	Prima Edizione LP		-
	Prima Edizione CD		Sony / Vivarte - SK 66 264 - (1 CD) - durata 60' 45" - (p) 1996 - DDD
	Cover Art		Der einsame Baum (1822) by Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840) - Courtesy Archiv für Kunst und Geschichte, Berlin
	Note		-

According to lJsef Doppler, a friend of the Schubert family, the composer's Octet in F major D 803 was commissioned by the talented amateur clarinettist, Count Ferdinand Troyer. Completed in March 1824, it is thus coeval with two other important works, the Rosamunde Quartet in A minor D 804 and the String Quartet D 810 (“Death and the Maiden”), with both of which it shares certain features. (Like the two quartets, the Octet includes a set of variations on a theme by Schubert himself - in this case, seven variations on the theme of the love duet for soprano and tenor from the Singspiel Die Freunde von Salamanka D 326 of 1815.) Contrary to his normal practice, Schubert had written little during the previous two months, since he was still recovering from a syphilitic infection that he had contracted in 1822. In a letter of March 31, 1824 he poured out his heart to his friend Leopold Kupelwieser: “I feel myself to be the unhappiest, most wretched creature in the world. Imagine a man whose health will never be right again, who in sheer despair merely makes things worse instead of better, [...] whose most brilliant hopes have been dashed, and to whom the happiness of love and friendship have nothing to offer but pain at best [...]. Each night, on retiring to bed, I hope I may not wake again, and each morning but recalls yesterday's grief. Thus, joyless and friendless, I spend my days.” Troyer's commission helped to restore Schubert's spirits. The composer is guilty of an understatement when he tells his friend, as though in passing, “I've not written many new songs, but I've tried my band at several instrumental works”, since the Octet and two string quartets are examples of chamber music at its greatest. They are also - the pessimistic tone of his report to Kupelwieser notwithstanding - part of a wider strategy “to pave the way to the grand symphony in general.” The fact that Schubert goes on to mention the imminent first performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in Vienna and his additional remark, “God willing, I too am thinking of giving a similar concert next year”, suggest that to a certain extent Schubert saw himself as Beethoven's rival, and there is certainly no denying that, in its overall structure and the forces for which it is scored, Beethoven's Septet Op. 20 served as a model for the Octet. In terms of its sheer scale, however, D 803 far surpasses its predecessor: with a playing time of almost an hour, it is Schubert's longest chamber work, begging comparisons with the “Great” C major Symphony D 944 of 1825 and constituting his most substantial completed instrumental work to date. The opening movement's Adagio introduction is based on a dactylic rhythm often associated with Schubert himself and with the idea of “destiny”. It is first found in his song Der Wanderer and, both here and in other songs such as Der Tod und das Mädchen, suggests wandering, alienation, the absence of love, and death. Its appearance in Schubert's instrumental music may be seen as an example of symbolic transference. The motif is heard again at the climax of the Allegro section, where it returns with imploratory force in the strings, before other passages from the introduction are taken up and requoted. The final movement, too, is preceded by a slow introduction - an Andante molto that strikes the listener as a distant echo of the opening Adagio. With the nightmarish, quasi-orchestral string tremolandos of the Andante molto (they are heard again at the climax of the movement,where they are eerily foreshortened and rendered barely recognizable) and with its symphonically structured climaxes and scurrying scales, especially on the first violin, the finale is undoubtedly the Octet's most remarkable movement. In both the dance movements (an Allegro vivace and Menuetto) as well as in the variation movement that comes between them, the ostensibly cheerful tone traditionally associated with the divertimento proves to be deceptive. Although all six movements are nominally in the major, the dominant impression is that of minor tonalities, with a real sense of grief in decisive episodes, including the Adagio, which earlier editors, in a wilful attempt to “correct” the composer, headed “Andante un poco mosso”. Towards the end of this movement, there is a marked increase in dramatic intensity, until two sforzato accents in the strings abruptly disrupt the melodic line, after which the clarinet, for all its strident and almost pitiful insistence, is powerless to restore the earlier cantabile calm. The Octet was first performed in the spring of 1824 at the home of Count Troyer, who not only commissioned it but is also believed to have taken the clarinet part. The leader was Ignaz Schuppanzigh, who is best known for his performances of Beethoven and to whose virtuoso abilities the exceptionally difficult violin part was presumably tailored. In the past a rhythmically simplified version of this violin part was used (most of the changes affected only the final movement), but for the present recording Schubert's original version has been preferred. Georg Borchardt (Translation: © 1996 Stewart Spencer)