Bruch, String Quintet / Julia Fischer

One last bloom, and then it’s gone. This is neither a refrain nor an advertisement, but the outline of a twilight afternoon. Max Bruch, wrongly regarded as the composer of just one violin concerto, was an elderly man by the time he completed his Octet in 1920: a farewell piece, steeped in regret, which looks Brahms in the eye one last time.