Octet & Sextet (2002)

Het Valerius Ensemble speelt op 13 februari 2011 het Octet Op. 17, dat ook op deze CD is te vinden. Deze opname uit 2001, door het Philharmonic String Octet Berlin, werd beoordeeld een dubbele negen op ClassicsToday: "If you like Mendelssohn's Octet you will love this disc of Niels Gade's chamber works. The Danish composer's own Octet and Sextet are so similar in structure and sonority to the more famous work that you would swear they were written by Mendelssohn himself. Of course, Gade and Mendelssohn were reasonably close, as Gade was assistant conductor of the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig before taking over the directorship after Mendelssohn's death in 1847. The Berlin Philharmonic String Octet, whose stated mission is to expand the repertoire for string octet, plays with assuredness and with the same lustrous tone we associate with the Berlin orchestra itself. MDG's sonics are excellent, featuring a full, rich acoustic." (Michael Liebowitz; klik op de link voor de gehele tekst)