Anton Bruckner

How to describe Bruckner's Quintet in a nutshell? Well, to paraphrase Pirandello, 'Five players in search of a key' would do very nicely. The First Movement begins in F with a 1st subject melody which is strikingly wide ranging, serene and confident on first violin over a cello F pedal bass supported by gently moving chromatic harmony in the inner parts. This lovely melody sounds even brighter when repeated by the cello and is soon joined by a myriad number of musical motifs. Very gradually this F major calm becomes more and more disrupted by the increasingly chromatic harmony until it disappears completely. A big unison statement in C alerts us to the conclusion of the 1st subject group which has proved to be a compendium of short thematic phrases in addition to the principal theme. The 2nd subject group is in the alien key of F sharp major. The exposition returns to the serenity of the opening and the development continues in the same vein but the plethora of material already built up is soon subjected to an intricately complex tour de force of contrapuntal procedures proving the close relationship of the apparently random matter and continually moving from key to key in unexpected modulations as though searching for the elusive F major tonic yet the start of the recapitulation finds the 1st subject back in F sounding even more magical than before but this key is soon lost again as a tapestry of themes is rewoven in ever wandering harmonies until the brief climactic Coda assures us of the supremacy of F. - Joseph Brand on abruckner.com