Scharoun Ensemble Berlin

The Scharoun Ensemble has been one of Germany’s most distinctive and interesting chamber music formations for more than 35 years. A classic octet makes up the core ensemble: clarinet, bassoon, horn, a pair of violins, viola, cello and double bass. The ideal line-up, in other words, to perform the Octet by George Benjamin, which he sketched just a few months after finishing his studies with Olivier Messiaen – a piece with »scherzando character, occasionally broken by lyrical moments and piercing dynamics«, as the composer himself puts it.