Franz Ferdinand

A much loved score, this Octet, cast in six movements is scored for clarinet, bassoon, horn, two violins, viola, cello and double bass. It was written in 1824 as a commission from the amateur clarinettist Count Ferdinand von Troyer who was an official at the court of Archduke Rudolf, an heir to the Austrian throne. Troyer stipulated that the score should be modelled on Beethoven’s Septet, Op. 20 (1799) a work that at the time was enjoying great popularity in Vienna. At a fertile time for Schubert’s chamber music the Octet was composed during the same period as his String Quartets No. 13 in A minor, D804 ‘Rosamunde’ and No. 14 in D minor, D810 ‘Death and the Maiden’.

In honour of Haydn's bicentenary CPO are delighted to present a rarely recorded work; Haydn's two act singspiel Die Feuersbrunst oder das abgebrannte Haus (The Conflagration or The Burned House).