Engelbert Humperdinck: String Quartets (Cpo Audio CD)

String Quartets & Piano Quintet

String Quartet in C major; Piano Quintet in G major; Menuet in E flat major for Piano Quintet; String Quartet Movement in E minor; String Quartet Movement in C minor; Notturno for Violin & String Quartet in G major

Diogenes Quartett, Andreas Kirpal (piano), Lydia Dubrovskaya (violin)

• The music world associates Humperdinck first and foremost with his fairy-tale operas. Chamber music accounts for only a relatively small portion of his oeuvre, but should not be underestimated in its importance.

• This release presents the String Quartets and première recording of the Piano Quintet. In the Piano Quintet especially, the catchy themes and its wonderfully melodious middle movement, represent a valuable contribution to late-romantic literature off the beaten track.