Octet in F major, D. 803

"Editor's choices - May 2018: The energy and imagination from Faust and friends never lets up over the hour-long span of Schubert's largest-scale chamber work; the ebullient vitality of the Trio has an almost symphonic quality, whilst the fourth-movement variations feel as if they're being improvised on the spot".

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"Album der Woche: Alle acht Musiker sind hier natürlich Solisten. Sie machen wunderbare Kammermusik, hören einander zu, haben feine Dialoge, spielen sich Bälle zu, sind hellwach. Das ist das pure Vergnügen, so eine Musik zu spielen. Und es macht Freude, das zu hören".

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"This new recording features a distinguished group of musicians, led by its co-founders, the virtuoso clarinettist Michael Collins and distinguished Dutch violinist Isabelle van Keulen ... There is no gainsaying the extra impact of the digital/multi-channel stereo/SACD sound here; its clarity is startling and ... the impeccable balance reveals not only every layer of instrumental sound but the precision and facility of all eight players ... Anyone seeking a modern recording of this seminal work will surely be completely satisfied with both the sound and the virtuosity of this new issue".

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"Hovedværket, den store oktet i seks satser, er en herlig oplevelse. Klarinetten spiller også her en førende rolle, men deler den med førsteviolinen, den karismatiske Isabelle van Keulen. At høre de to som duet i den langsomme sats er at føle sig hensat til en bedre verden. Men alle medvirkende musikere har fornem klasse. Og i finalen med dens dramatiske indledning ... mærker man den helt særlige glød, som afslutningen på en vellykket livekoncert medfører".

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"Den fremragende klarinettist Michael Collins ... og pianisten Malcolm Martineau i Schuberts Der Hirt auf dem Felsen [spiller] op til mere, end sopranen Allish Tynan kan følge, men så følger den herligste udgave af Schuberts oktet med bl.a. Collins' hustru Isabella van Keulen på violin, Lars Anders Tomter på bratsch og Daniel Müller-Schott på cello. Den må give ro og glæde".

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"En dejlig Schubert-cd. Den frodige klarinettist Michael Collins har med venner, som det hedder, indspillet Schubert ... Hovedværket er Schuberts oktet, hvor fru Collins, Isabelle van Keulen, den herlige bratschist Lars Anders Tomter og cellisten Daniel Müller-Schott, som vi også kender fra samarbejdet med Anne-Sophie Mutter, samt endnu fire musikere spiller virkelig herligt".

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"Vurdering: Editor's choice" - "This is the most enjoyable account of Schubert's Octet I can remember, on disc or concert ... The sense of a live performance in both Octet and song is beautifully caught".

"As the cover billing suggests, Isabelle Faust is very much the guiding light in this period-instrument Octet. Yet her creative inventiveness is matched by her considerateness as a chamber colleague. In a performance notable for its intimacy Faust never seeks to hog the limelight ... The period instruments, superlatively played ... create naturally softer, more transparent textures than their modern counterparts ... The new performance's transparency and intimacy, it's fine balance of exuberance and poetic inwardness, make it an immediate front-runner".

"As expertly played as one could wish for ... yet for all the obvious care and gentle affection for the music in hand, it's a performance that resolutely refuses to let its hair down ... turn to the Vienna Octet".

"Vurdering: Editor's choice" - "A spacious performance, enthralling and poetic: it leaves behind the world of happy Viennese music-making ... instead we have a view of the Octet as one of Schubert's major achievements".

"Anima Eterna perform Schubert's ever-lovable Octet on instruments largely from the early 19th century. And these instruments are wild ... There's a graininess to the strings and a glorious hollowness to Beltane Ruiz Molina's double bass. Modern instruments have developed to be better-behaved and to promote blend but these players exult in the timbral differences between them ... The steampunk brazenness of this Belgian ensemble ... is its own advertisement".

"Schuberts oktett och Berwalds septett passar bra ihop. Schubert bidrar med sitt aldrig sinande melodiska flöde och med harmonisk elegans. Berwald musicerar med friska tag - kast och kontraster ... Den belgiska ensemblen Anima Eterna Brugge: en kammarorkester med mer än 30 års erfarenhet ... De levererar genomskinlighet - lite kärv när blåsarna blåser, medan stråkarnas spel resulterar i virtuost flimrande passager".

"Amid the exuberance and sense of selfless shared enjoyment, the players seize every opportunity for lyrical eloquence ... In sum, the Berliners not only don't put a foot wrong but get everything resoundingly right".

"Wigmore Soloists ... what players they are, with names such as ... Benjamin Gilmore, viola player Timothy Ridout, cellist Kristina Blaumane and basoonist Robin O'Neill. Accordingly, not only does the performance shine from without but is illuminated with a gorgeous glow from within ... The whole is borne along on the ever-active double bass of Tim Gibbs, making for a remarkable performance of one of the finest of all works for mixed chamber ensemble".