ConcertPulse
Chamber music but with symphonic flair
Narodowej Orkiestry Symfonicznej Polskiego Radia, Chamber Hall (Katowice)
It is a rare opportunity to listen to an octet. This type of ensemble on the verge of chamber and orchestral music involving eight instruments has had a variety of instrumentations and patterns based on them. The reference point for the purely stringed ensemble cast is the octet written in 1825 by Felix Mendelssohn, who was only sixteen years old then. Following in his footsteps in 1900 was the nineteen-year-old George Enescu, who was by then already quite prolific as a composer, as he began making music as soon as he learned the notes at the age of five. As it turned out, he grew into the greatest Romanian composer and one of the most outstanding violinists of his era. Written in 1900, his String Octet in C major is an incredibly up-to-date work compared to the trends of the time as Enescu captured the difficult moment of Romanticism's transition into Modernism. Despite being divided into four movements, it is essentially a continuous piece with orchestral panache and rich expression. All of this makes it no worse than many symphonies! Adam SuprynowiczConcert duration: approximately 80 minutes