A long-lost octet receives its world premiere recording
The Strad on the premiere recording of Loeffler’s Octet, on Forgotten Sounds.
Charles Martin Loeffler (1861–1935), the Berlin-born, Boston-based composer, wrote his Octet in 1897 for two clarinets, harp, string quartet and double bass. The Kneisel Quartet and members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra premiered it at Boston’s Association Hall; it was played again a month later at the home of Isabella Stewart Gardner, and then never heard again.
In April 2020 the clarinetist Graeme Steele Johnson came across references to it and traced the 75-page manuscript to the Library of Congress. He spent a year preparing the first edition, and in 2022 brought eight musicians together to play it, among them his former teacher David Shifrin.
The world-premiere recording came out on Delos as Forgotten Sounds on 7 June 2024, and The Strad reported on it. Siwoo plays violin alongside Stella Chen, with Johnson and Shifrin on clarinets, Bridget Kibbey on harp, Matthew Lipman on viola, Samuel DeCaprio on cello and Sam Suggs on double bass.
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Forgotten SoundsLoeffler · Debussy · Graeme Steele Johnson, clarinetApple MusicSpotify
