Wiener Oktett - The Decca Recordings (2023)
FLAC (tracks) - 6.5 GB | MP3 CBR 320 kbps - 3.4 GB
25:57:36 | Classical | Label: Eloquence Australia
Decca signed an exclusive contract with the Wiener Oktett (Vienna Octet) in the summer of 1948 as a commercially motivated move: a sweetener to the deal that also poached the Philharmonic Orchestra from EMI. The ensemble had been formed only a year or so previously around the Boskovsky brothers, violinist Willi and clarinetist Alfred. Soon enough, audiences at home as well as in concert were enjoying the sound of a quintessentially Viennese ensemble, it's members drawn from the ranks of the Philharmonic, in Classical-era music that could have been written for them, starting with the Septet by Beethoven and the Octet by Schubert. The sweet, silvery tone of the Octet and the easy give-and-go of it's phrasing established the Octet as the latest in a line of distinguished Viennese chamber ensembles, from the Rosé Quartet of Mahler's era to the Barylli Quartet documented by the Westminster label.