Beethoven's wind music does not often get an airing. Neither of the principal works on this record is in the current catalogue. Both, in spite of their opus numbers, are early: Op. 103 dates from the early 1790s, presumably intended for the elector's wind band in Bonn, but it remained unpublished until after his death (except in a rewritten version for string quintet, issued as his Op. 4 in 1796); the Sextet, probably composed a few years later, was published in 1810.
The Octet in particular deserves to be better known; it is a cheerful, expansive piece, slightly loosely put together but written with plenty of spirit and ingenuity and very characteristic, especially in its middle movements, a tuneful Andante and a 'menuetto' that is in reality a vigorous, almost explosive scherzo (with points of resemblance, even, to that of the Ninth Symphony). The invention in the Sextet seems to me altogether less interesting, though of course third-rate Beethoven is still a great deal superior to much we are offered. The best piece on the disc is the Rondino, originally planned, it would appear, as the finale to the Octet, and music of unusual charm (not a quality one always associates with Beethoven), composed with some finesse. I do feel, however, that it was ill-advised to treat it here as the fourth movement of a five-movement octet, coming between the scherzo and the finale. I do not think there is good reason to imagine that Beethoven wanted to return to an older divertimento pattern in this way, and if he had it is extremely improbable that he would have used at this point a slowish rondo movement of considerable weight and with a strong air of finality. Still, it is good to have it; but I would suggest to anyone buying the record to skip it when listening to the Octet and come back to it later.
Considering the difficulties of playing period instruments, and especially of playing them in tune, the performers do pretty well. There are a number of points where it might have been worth devoting more time to retaking passages where attack is not unanimous or intonation less than perfect; there are even two or three little slips that were allowed to go through. But the playing is mostly very musical and assured: I specially enjoyed Paul Goodwin's oboe solo music in the slow movement of the Octet, and Colin Lawson does some spectacular things on the clarinet in the Sextet. The muted horns in the Rondino sound well with what the interesting sleeve-note tells us are home-made mutes done to an old recipe. There is able bassoon playing, sometimes a little less defined than one might ideally like in the tenor register. The LP sound is perfectly acceptable, but the CD captures more truthfully the tone of these period instruments, in particular the ring and warmth of the sound of early clarinets.'