Composer: Max Bruch
Performer: WDR Sinfonieorchester Chamber Players
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Alpha
Release: 2021
Size: 703 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
String Quintet in E Flat, Op. posth (1918)
01. I. Andante con moto
02. II. Allegro
03. III. Andante con moto
04. IV. Andante con moto – Allegro ma non troppo vivace
String Quintet in A minor, Op. posth (1918)
05. I. Allegro
06. II. Allegro molto
07. III. Adagio non troppo
08. IV. Allegro
Octet in B flat major, Op. post. (1920)
09. I. Allegro moderato
10 .II. Adagio – Andante con moto di molto
11. III. Allegro molto
Max Bruch was eighty years old when, in 1918, he decided to return to the chamber music genre he had frequented in his early years. Stimulated by the violin virtuoso Willy Hess, he composed two string quintets and an octet, monuments to beauty and harmony, at the end of a tumultuous personal life and in the midst of a western world on the brink of collapse. After an album devoted to Beethoven’s chamber music, the Chamber Players of the WDR Sinfonieorchester now tackle one of the last chapters of German Romantic music, with pieces that constitute Bruch’s swansong.