Antal Dorati & Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy: String Octets

Released (2008)

Antal Dorati (1906-1988) was unquestionably one of the most distinguished ‘conductor-composers’ of the 20th century. In his long conducting career he appeared with virtually every major orchestra in the world, and became musical director of several of the most celebrated of them. Throughout his life, however, he was also composing and creating a substantial body of work whose existence has remained, until recently, unsuspected by the vast majority of concert-goers, but is now arousing increasing interest; and whose surprising extent is at least indicated by the present catalogue. This album is a world premiere recording of this particular portion Dorati’s repertoire.

Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1809-1847) is among the most popular composers, pianists and conductors of the early Romantic period. Mendelssohn is often regarded as the greatest musical child prodigy after Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. His first public concert appearance was at the age of nine. He was also a prolific composer as a child, and wrote his first published work, a piano quartet, by the time he was thirteen.

Cinematic to say the least, the soloists of the Camerata Lysy take you on an epic musical journey from beginning to end. This album was recorded in the best possible circumstances, using 24 bit/96KHz high resolution technology in Dinemec Studios’ own acoustic marvel that is the Studio One Auditorium.