Ensemble Ulf Hoelscher - Max Bruch: String Octet, String Quintet, Piano Quintet (2000)

Posted By: tirexiss

Date: Nov. 16, 2019

Anyone who knows and loves the warmth of expression in Bruch's famous first violin concerto will find the same lyrical gifts amply displayed here - the slow movements are particularly heartfelt and Bruch, even at this late stage in his life, seems to have had an undiminished fund of touching melody. That is not to suggest that the Romantic ardour of these works is solely confined to the slow movements, though: the opening 'allegro' of the octet, for instance, contains writing of deeply felt passion too, as does the development section of the string quintet's first movement.

Although the string quintet and octet were written towards the end Bruch's life, there really is no sense that this is the music of an old man. The outer movements have a strong sense of rhythm and this makes for spirited finales in particular, while the scherzos are notable for their exuberant energy. The scherzo of the string quintet, with its tarantella elements, is especially winning - this is delightful music that can't fail to lift your spirits.

The Ensemble Ulf Hoelscher plays impeccably but, most importantly, with verve and spirit too. Bruch's ensemble writing assigns a prominent - and by no means technically easy - role to the first violin and Hoelscher dispatches his part with assurance. There is an alternative recording of the octet on Naxos - Bruch; Mendelssohn - Octets - which is also well played, but it is coupled with Mendelssohn's own youthful octet; an apt coupling without doubt but recordings of the Mendelssohn (and very good ones too) are ten-a-penny, so on those grounds the more enterprising repertoire on this disc makes it my recommended choice between the two.

Put simply, what we have here is a generously filled disc of quite lovely, unaffected and beautifully crafted music. My first reaction after the disc had finished playing was to press start and listen to it all over again - I can't give it any better recommendation than that.

AllMusic

Track List:

01. String Octet Op.posth I Allegro moderato [0:11:20.37]
02. String Octet Op.posth II Adagio [0:07:12.65]
03. String Octet Op.posth III Allegro molto [0:06:20.35]
04. Piano Quintet Op.posth in G minor I Allegro molto moderato [0:09:18.13]
05. Piano Quintet Op.posth in G minor II Adagio [0:07:04.65]
06. Piano Quintet Op.posth in G minor III Scherzo [0:06:25.27]
07. Piano Quintet Op.posth in G minor IV Finale. Allegro agitato [0:05:24.60]
08. String Quintet Op.posth in A minor I Allegro [0:10:28.03]
09. String Quintet Op.posth in A minor II Allegro molto [0:03:56.05]
10. String Quintet Op.posth in A minor III Adagio non troppo [0:04:24.17]
11. String Quintet Op.posth in A minor VI Allegro [0:06:56.70]

Performers:
Ensemble Ulf Hoelscher

EAC Log

Exact Audio Copy V1.0 beta 3 from 29. August 2011

EAC extraction logfile from 2. April 2014, 18:48

Ensemble Ulf Hoelscher / Max Bruch - String Octet, String Quintet, Piano Quintet - Ensemble Ulf Hoelscher

Used drive : TSSTcorpCDDVDW SH-222BB Adapter: 2 ID: 1

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 6
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000

Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 896 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files\Exact Audio Copy\FLAC\FLAC.EXE
Additional command line options : -8 -V -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "ALBUMARTIST=%albumartist%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "TRACKTOTAL=%numtracks%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "COMMENT=%comment%" -T "PERFORMER=%albuminterpret%" -T "COMPOSER=%composer%" %source% -o %dest%

TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 11:20.37 | 0 | 51036
2 | 11:20.37 | 7:12.65 | 51037 | 83501
3 | 18:33.27 | 6:20.35 | 83502 | 112036
4 | 24:53.62 | 9:18.13 | 112037 | 153899
5 | 34:12.00 | 7:04.65 | 153900 | 185764
6 | 41:16.65 | 6:25.27 | 185765 | 214666
7 | 47:42.17 | 5:24.60 | 214667 | 239026
8 | 53:07.02 | 10:28.03 | 239027 | 286129
9 | 63:35.05 | 3:56.05 | 286130 | 303834
10 | 67:31.10 | 4:24.17 | 303835 | 323651
11 | 71:55.27 | 6:56.70 | 323652 | 354921

Range status and errors

Selected range

Filename E:\3000\[3641] Max Bruch – String Octet, String Quintet, Piano Quintet – Ensemble Ulf Hoelscher\Max Bruch - String Octet, String Quintet, Piano Quintet - Ensemble Ulf Hoelscher.wav

Peak level 98.8 %
Extraction speed 7.4 X
Range quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 0619277E
Copy CRC 0619277E
Copy OK

No errors occurred

AccurateRip summary

Track 1 accurately ripped (confidence 2) [11F13295] (AR v2)
Track 2 accurately ripped (confidence 2) [F1AF5F45] (AR v2)
Track 3 accurately ripped (confidence 2) [620C1950] (AR v2)
Track 4 accurately ripped (confidence 2) [227FD6FB] (AR v2)
Track 5 accurately ripped (confidence 2) [8A112080] (AR v2)
Track 6 accurately ripped (confidence 2) [6E323D56] (AR v2)
Track 7 accurately ripped (confidence 2) [3F39C2B0] (AR v2)
Track 8 accurately ripped (confidence 2) [CA17A567] (AR v2)
Track 9 accurately ripped (confidence 2) [B8253050] (AR v2)
Track 10 accurately ripped (confidence 2) [8220ACB0] (AR v2)
Track 11 accurately ripped (confidence 2) [D90F38BD] (AR v2)

All tracks accurately ripped

End of status report

==== Log checksum 965372E43DCB8CD393A9D695254ABBFB0BBA6B8FEFD58B3805D7987378164DDA ====

Thanks to the Original ripper (unknown)!

Welcome to my blog!

Download:

Download from icerbox.com