PRE-ORDER: Magisterra - Ferdinand Thieriot: Chamber Music Vol. 5 [CD], Magisterra, CD

The Hamburg-born Ferdinand Thieriot (1838-1919) not only shared a teacher - Eduard Marxsen - with Brahms; both composers, who remained friends in later years, use a very similar musical language. The musicologist Wilhelm Altmann wrote that 'Thieriot's chamber music is without exception noble and pure. He writes with perfect command of form and expression' - as the works on this fifth Toccata Classics volume prove, in their exquisite balance of depth and beauty, of Brahmsian richness and Schubertian spontaneity. Thieriot's Op. 62 Octet for winds and strings brings one gorgeous tune after another, but it's the Op. 78 Octet for strings - here in it's first recording - that will astonish: in it's blend of melodic profusion and effortless counterpoint it is hardly less impressive than Mendelssohn's exemplar.