BRUCKNER String Quintet.1 String Quartet. Intermezzo in d.1 Rondo in c • Fine Arts Qrt; Gil Sharon (va)1 • NAXOS 8.570788 (78.50)

When the Bruckner revival was in full swing a few decades ago, this writer was never entirely smitten, and to this day I wince when he and Mahler are combined in casual conversation, since the style and quality of their music is so utterly different. Bruckner’s limited chamber music output hasn’t found much of a home in the repertoire of top-tier ensembles, but there is enough to make a cautious judgment, and the latest entry from Naxos might help some to examine this lonely corner of the repertoire.

Given my prejudices, I might not be expected to gush over this new disc of Bruckner’s Quintet in F Major and Quartet in C Minor by the Fine Arts Quartet, and I won’t. The performances are quite good and lovingly delivered, but the same qualities I have always considered weaknesses (utterly predictable phrase patterns and melodic sequences, unjustified repetitions, etc.) are in full bloom here as well, characteristics magnified by the absent splendor of a grand orchestra creating great masses of sonic beauty, which I believe too often masks a dearth of ideas and creative paths through the material. Despite my harsh minority view of the topic, I would not recommend relegating this disc to the garbage heap. In fact, there are intermittent pleasures here and there that might please the casual Bruckner listener and delight his more ardent admirers.

Posterity is certainly wise to give greater value to the mature Quintet over the youthful and rather thinly realized Quartet. Composed around the time of the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies (1879), the Quintet sounds like one of his symphonic monuments, though it is a bit shorter and requires more nimble and intimate passagework from the performers, particularly the first violin. Some familiar harmonic patterns are present, and I detect some melodic snippets reminiscent of chamber works from Schumann (the “falling fifth,” for example). There is a fair amount of counterpoint, especially in the development section of the first movement. The Scherzo is one of the stronger movements on the disc, and is spun with a classical lightness that occasionally brings to mind Mendelssohn. There is even a touch of humor here and there, not an attribute Bruckner is known for. Not surprisingly for the über-revisionist Austrian, there is an alternative to the Scherzo, a rather pleasant Intermezzo, handily included on the disc for those inclined to judge for themselves.

The Adagio from the Quintet is sometimes heard in a transcription for string orchestra, a setting for which it seems more suited. Its lyrical, tender, and extended themes are among the composer’s finest, and there are occasions when the clarity of five players lends a touching intimacy not possible in massed strings.

The Quartet was discovered only in 1949 in a sketchbook of works from his student years. This is a much more reticent composer, content to remain well within the models of quartet composition inherited from his predecessors, a tendency most notable in the Scherzo. His attempts at Romantic-era duress seem strained, but there are some catchy tunes, especially in the supple and tender Andante.

I haven’t heard many of the dozen or so recordings of the Quintet, but you’re unlikely to find one much better than this finely executed and clearly recorded disc; doubly so for the far rarer Quartet. The Fine Arts Quartet gives a warmly expressive and carefully calibrated reading, joined by the fine violist Gil Sharon in the Quintet.

FANFARE: Michael Cameron