Schubert Octet for Winds & Strings in F Major, D. 803

Brentano String Quartet
Anthony McGill, Clarinet
Jennifer Montone, Horn
Daniel Matsukawa, Bassoon
Leigh Mesh, Bass

Concert experience by Michael Dean Morgan and Wesley Cornwell

Listening to Franz Schubert’s Octet makes one feel that a reservoir of melody has been opened up, with torrents of tunefulness pouring from each measure. What might on the surface seem like a light-hearted musical diversion, in fact, holds deep wells of yearning, evanescent beauty, haunting the lighter moments and looking toward the composer’s far darker works. The sound world expands and contracts, sounding richly symphonic one moment and strikingly spare the next, and in the hands of the Brentano Quartet – who spent 16 years in-residence at Princeton – and friends, this kaleidoscopic masterpiece will be nothing short of revelatory.