Overview
This collection of ebullient chamber works features masters at the height of their craft. Written a year after his wife died—and only months before his own death—Bruch’s melodious String Octet in B-flat Major defies its dark origins with an untarnished optimism. Schubert’s lilting Piano Trio No. 1 in B-flat Major sways with hints of gondola songs and gentle waltzes. Fellow composer Robert Schumann took one glance at the score and proclaimed that the music made “the troubles of our human existence disappear and all the world . . . fresh and bright again.”