Eloquence Mendelssohn: Octet (orch. version); Beethoven: String Quartet in F minor, Op. 95 (arr. Mahler) CD

While Mozart is regularly touted as a teenage wonder, experts say there’s nothing he wrote as a teenager that could rival Mendelssohn’s Octet – a work beloved of audiences and ensembles alike. One of Decca’s earliest digital recordings was of the string orchestra version of this piece by the Israel Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta. Lusciously played and brilliantly engineered, it makes its first international release for CD on this compilation. It is paired with yet another chamber work arranged for full orchestra, this time Mahler’s arrangement of Beethoven’s so-called ‘Serioso’ Quartet.