eight is enough

I know there are more momentous things to be lacking, but for the longest time one thing I was lacking was a really good recording of Mendelssohn's Octet. This is one of my favorite works of chamber music (twice as much stringy goodness as your standard quartet!), but I rarely listened to it at home because I didn't care much for the recordings I had. And it's peculiarly rare that two quartet ensembles sit down together and play it.

Now comes this month's BBC Music Magazine with a performance by the Royal and Psophos Quartets, whoever they may be, and it's pretty good. While the first movement is less vehement than ideal - I like the first violinist to sound as if at the very limits of endurance at the end of the exposition (and recap) - it's still pretty good, and the scherzo is the absolute perfection of Mendelssohnian airiness. I'm listening to it for the third time.

Paired with a solid, straightforward version of Schubert's Trout Quintet. I hardly needed another one of those, but it's nice to have all the same.