Consortium Classicum - Onslow: Nonet, Grand Septuor (2008)

The two large chamber works on this album were written in the late 1840s, at the end of English-French composer George Onslow's life. The large chamber groups involved look back to Beethoven's Septet, Op. 20, and beyond that to the divertimento tradition, and they are harmonically pretty standard, with large plans rooted in the post-Classical era of Hummel and his contemporaries. So they've been largely forgotten, victims of preposterous evolutionist perspectives, and Germany's Consortium Classicum has performed a valuable service by resurrecting them. The Nonet in A minor, Op. 77, is the real find. Onslow's handling of his large instrumental group is not just assured but extremely imaginative. The whole work features a wonderful variety of shifting timbres, and the long Tema con variazioni slow movement is virtually a study in texture. Sample the scherzo (track 2), with the almost impressionist shades conveyed in its serene middle section, and you'll realize that, as critic Charles Keil once said of polka music, that often the residual is the emergent. The Beethovenian Grand Septuor in B flat major, Op. 79, also has intriguing instrumental textures, with the piano in a tense space between solo instrument and supporting harmony; the instruments tend to come in and nibble away at the edges of its temporarily defined realm. Both works suggest that Onslow was one of the first composers to make a full acquaintance with Schubert's music. Another major strong point of this recording is the sound; the German audiophile label MDG outdoes itself here in an old riding stadium that displays the music's serenade-like textures to beautiful effect. Chamber players should absolutely get to know this music. There is nothing in the individual lines that would challenge good student musicians, but they stand to learn a great deal about subtle balance and interaction by playing this music. And they'll give their audiences a pleasant surprise, too.