Very close to Felix Mendelssohn, whose assistant he was at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, the Danish composer Niels Gade is well forgotten today. However, he leaves abundant and varied works of excellent musical quality. Composed a year after the death of his mentor, Gade's Octet in F major is filled with great energy and traversed by quivering and romantic melodies that make it a kind of little masterpiece that absolutely must be rediscovered. This mature piece obviously does not eclipse the miracle of the Octet in E flat major that Mendelssohn wrote at the age of 16 as a birthday present to his violin teacher. He has the insolence of an incredible child prodigy spoiled by the good fairies and equally gifted in music, as in poetry and drawing. Let's hope that this exciting and by no means unequal confrontation can lift the veil on one of the many injustices in the history of music.

^{Musicians of the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester in a co-production with the OSR:
Jonas Erni (violin), Lisa Schatzman (violin), Alexander Besa (viola), Heiner Reich (cello)}