While the number of instruments is always the same, the mix of those | eight | players is another story. They might be all strings, or woodwinds, or brass, perhaps with a piano, or a combination of any of the above.

The result is a group small enough for chamber music, but, under the right circumstances, one that can produce enough sound for an outdoor performance.

In this hour, the octet in its many different forms, in works by Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Dvorak, Stravinsky, and more.

FEATURED RECORDINGS

Title	Group/Artist	Catalog #	UPC
Mozart 225 [for Mozart’s Serenade in E-flat Major, K. 375 for eight instruments]	Members of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra	Decca/Deutsche Gramophone483 0000	028948300006
Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto; String Octet	James Ehnes and musicians of the Seattle Chamber Music Society	Onyx ONYX4060	0880040406020
Louis Ferdinand, Prince of Prussia: Complete Works [for Oktett F Dur op.9 - II. Romance]	Horst Göbel, members of the Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic	Thorofon Classics  CTH 2251/5	4003913122513
Villa-Lobos: Bachianas Brasileiras No. 1 & 5, etc. [for Bachianas Brasileiras No.1]]	Pleeth Cello Octet	Hyperion CDA66257	034571162577
Dunkle Lichter [forSchubert’s Octet for clarinet, horn, bassoon and strings]	East Side Oktett	Es Dur ES 2051	4015372820510
Beethoven: Complete Works [for Octet in E flat major]	Ottetto Italiano	Brilliant Classics 94630	5028421946306
Spohr: Nonet, Double Quartet	The Vienna Octet	London Records STS 15074	[from 1978 LP, no UPC]
Grieg, Svendsen - String Quartets [for Octet for Strings in A Major, by Johan Svendsen]	Kocian Quartet & M. Nostitz Quartet)	Praga PRD/DSD 250 274	794881975525
Stravinsky: Symphony In C, Symphony In 3 Movements, Octet, Dumbarton Oaks	Twentieth Century Classics Ensemble	Naxos 8.557507	747313250721