There are probably few “classical” chamber music ensembles that have such a distinctive sound as the octet instrumentation shaped by Franz Schubert. The absence of high woodwinds such as flute and oboe, the slight dominance of the strings, the addition of the double bass, and the warm, full, rounded overall colour create an intriguing in‑between sonority, somewhere between almost orchestral and purely chamber‑musical.

Both in Schubert’s marvellous six‑movement Octet in F major, D 803 (1824), and in Iannis Xenakis’s explosive Anaktoria (1969) – two milestones for this ensemble – it becomes clear what this scoring can achieve: to place the greatest lyricism alongside the utmost expressivity, intimacy alongside opulence; to fuse soloistic extravagance with finely chiselled tutti sonorities of great depth.

With my Yattsu I have now tried to wrest an unconditionally personal colour from this flagship of octet writing.

(Johannes Maria Staud, Mai 2021)