Sunday Classics preview: Beethoven and Schubert try to play it simple(r)

The rollicking Tempo di menuetto (third movement) of the Beethoven Septet is played by Jacques Meertens, clarinet; Jacob Slagter, horn; Gustavo Nunez, bassoon; Liviu Prunaru, violin; Michael Gieler, viola; Gregor Horsch, cello; and Thomas Braendstrup, double bass -- in Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, November 2007.

by Ken

This week we ponder the musical questions:

(1) What happens when you have a clarinetist, a horn player, a bassoonist, a violinist, a violist, a cellist, and a double-bass player in the same place?

(2) And if there's another violinist as well?

The answer to (1) is: They play the Beethoven Septet. And the answer to (2) is: They play the Schubert Octet, which was written in 1824, some 24 years later, and consciously echoed the Beethoven, which was one of the composer's most attention-getting works in the early part of his career. Tonight and tomorrow night we're going to hear snatches of these two pieces -- and then Sunday the complete Schubert Octet.


FOR UPBEAT EXCERPTS FROM THE BEETHOVEN
SEPTET AND THE SCHUBERT OCTET, CLICK HERE

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