The Gaudier Ensemble

We owe the existence of Schubert's octet to Count Ferdinand Troyer, a gifted amateur clarinettist who regularly organised musical evenings at his home. In 1824 he commissioned Schubert (1797-1828) to write a sequel to Beethoven's popular Septet. Schubert chose the same instruments: clarinet, bassoon, horn, violin, viola, cello and double bass and added a second violin to create a fuller sound. He experimented with various combinations of instruments and mixtures of timbre, thus producing a wealth of colour that had rarely been heard before, signalling the way to his later richly nuanced symphonic idiom. Before the Octet, the Gaudier Ensemble, augmented by Susan Tomes (familiar from the Florestan Trio) will perform Mozart's Quintet for piano and wind KV452. In a 1784 letter to his father, the composer said this Quintet was the best piece he had written in his life so far. We shall also hear Mozart's Horn Quintet KV407, composed for his childhood friend, the horn-player Joseph Leutgeb, who was one of the best musicians at the royal chapel in Vienna. It is notable here that Mozart opted for just one violin and two violas in addition to the cello, so that the strings would combine better with the alto timbre of the horn.