Brahms: String Quintets

by Gringolts String Quartet, Lilli Maijala

Overview

Brahms' two string quintets are comparatively rarely played, unlike his totally accessible string sextets from earlier in his career. They are late works with the complexity characteristic of the music from the later parts of Brahms' career, but they also have an overall light quality, with the String Quintet No. 1 in F major, Op. 88, falling into the simpler three-movement form, and the String Quintet No. 2 in G major, Op. 111, later acquiring the nickname "Prater Quintet" after the famed Viennese pleasure garden. It is a tough combination to catch accurately, but the careful, detailed readings by the Gringolts Quartet and violist Lilli Maijala manage the trick. Brahms intended the second quintet to be his final work (he changed his mind after hearing Richard Mühlfeld play the clarinet), and the group captures the valedictory quality. Physical buyers get an excellent set of notes by Katrin Eich describing the way Brahms, with some help from Joseph Joachim, struggled with details in this quartet. Eich points to the beginning of the String Quintet No. 2, where the cello has to struggle to be heard over structurally significant rhythms in the upper parts. The Gringolts handles this juncture very well: the top chords are not damped down, but cellist Claudius Herrmann invests the music with enough drive that the listener's focus is split evenly. So it is throughout, with subtle phrase treatments within a framework that is restrained overall and doesn't lose the gentle Classicism of the music. The BIS label's sound from a Swiss Reformed church is overbright but does not lose clarity. ~ James Manheim

Product Details

Release Date:	06/21/2024
Label:	BIS
UPC:	7318599927275

Tracks

1. String Quintet No. 1 in F major, Op. 88~I. Allegro non troppo ma con brio
2. String Quintet No. 1 in F major, Op. 88~II. Grave de appassionato - Allegretto vivace - Tempo I - Presto - Tempo I
3. String Quintet No. 1 in F major, Op. 88~III. Allegro energico - Presto
4. String Quintet No. 2 in G major, Op. 111~I. Allegro non troppo, ma con brio
5. String Quintet No. 2 in G major, Op. 111~II. Adagio
6. String Quintet No. 2 in G major, Op. 111~III. Un poco allegretto
7. String Quintet No. 2 in G major, Op. 111~IV. Vivace ma non troppo presto

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Gringolts String Quartet   Primary Artist,String Quartet
Lilli Maijala   Primary Artist,Viola

Technical Credits

Antonio Stradivari   Instrument Design
Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume   Instrument Design
Katrin Eich   Liner Notes
Giovanni Paolo Maggini   Instrument Design
Andrew Barnett   Liner Note Translation,Typesetting
Camillo Camilli   Instrument Design
Mats Baecker   Photography
Jean-Pascal Vachon   Liner Note Translation
Robert Suff   Executive Producer
Jens Braun   Post Production,Producer,Engineer,Editing,Mixing
Johannes Brahms   Composer
Tomasz Trzebiatowski   Photography
Thiago Montoto   Photography
Eduardus Lee   Photography
Jacobus Januarius   Instrument Design