Johannes Brahms: String Quintets Nos 1 & 2 (Hyperion Audio CD)

The Raphael Ensemble


Brahms composed his two published String Quintets amid the rural tranquillity of Bad Ischl in Upper Austria and the works can almost be seen as an expression of escape from the 'urban stress' of nineteenth-century Vienna. The Quintets show Brahms standing at the pinnacle of the composition of chamber music, their gentle pastoral character being subtly shaded by a profoundly melancholy introspection.

This disc follows up on the extrordinary success of The Raphael Ensemble's recording of Brahms's two String Sextets (CDA66276).