Mendelssohn wrote his Octet in E-flat major in 1825 when he was all of sixteen years old. It’s thought to have been first heard at a Sunday afternoon concert at the Mendelssohn home in Berlin either later that year or in 1826; the first public performance followed a decade later.

The assured character of Mendelssohn’s writing throughout the Octet is evident from the start of the first movement. Its first theme opens with an expansive, violin arpeggio figure that leaps up, first, two octaves and a sixth, and, then, a full three octaves – all (of course) effortlessly and with total confidence. A more compact second theme offers a nice contrast, but the overriding demeanor of the music is one of mature, irresistible youthful energy.

The whole piece isn’t entirely without its cares, though, as the introspective second movement demonstrates. Perhaps the most striking feature of this slow movement is the conflict between duple and triple rhythms that occur at its heart: this is a device Mendelssohn would return to regularly in his chamber music (especially) to evoke some sort of emotional struggle.

The third-movement scherzo is rightly regarded as the Octet’s most brilliant: Mendelssohn never topped his “elfin” style as it appears here. And the finale picks up right where the Scherzo leaves off, beginning with intimations of a brilliant eight-part fugue before turning into five minutes of staggeringly athletic and sunny counterpoint.

Fairly or not (but certainly not surprisingly), Mendelssohn’s later music sometimes suffered from unfavorable comparisons to both the Octet and the Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream(penned the following year, when he was seventeen). Even so, Mendelssohn himself didn’t seem to mind, near the end of his life declaring the Octet to be “my favorite of all my compositions” – a wise verdict that’s been seconded by musicians and audiences for nearly two centuries now.

© Jonathan Blumhofer