As members of one of the world’s leading Bruckner orchestras, violinist Yuan-Qing Yu and cellist Ken Olsen know the 19th century Austrian symphonist better than most.
But when the board chair of their chamber group, Civitas Ensemble, asked if they’d consider playing Bruckner’s String Quintet in honor of his bicentennial this year, both longtime Chicago Symphony musicians were befuddled.
“I didn’t even know the quintet existed. I thought Bruckner didn’t write any chamber music,” Olsen admits. “But it’s a nice piece. It reminds me quite a bit of the way he wrote his symphonies.”
That it does. Of the three instrumental chamber works Bruckner left behind, the Quintet is most recognizably his handiwork. His early String Quartet (1862) sounds more Schumannesque than Brucknerian; “Abendklänge” (1866), his tiny piano-violin duo, is even more elusive, trailing off before it forms a cogent artistic statement.
Yu and Olsen spoke to the Tribune about Bruckner’s String Quintet before performing it at Civitas’s season-opening concert on Oct. 13. CSO colleagues will join them and fellow ensemble member Winston Choi on the program, which also includes Mendelssohn’s Piano Sextet in D Major. The following conversation has been edited and condensed.
Q: At the top of the call, we talked about how Bruckner can be a divisive composer. What have your relationships been like with his music?
Yu: (Daniel) Barenboim (the CSO’s music director from 1991 to 2006, who hired both Yu and Olsen) definitely loved Bruckner. Even in my early years in the orchestra, before Ken joined, we played a lot of the Bruckner symphonies. I always liked Bruckner, maybe partially due to how Barenboim was doing it — he’s so lyrical. The way Barenboim brought out the arch over these ginormous symphonies was very spiritual for me.
With Bruckner, it’s so difficult to keep your attention. But then, we recently did Bruckner with (Christian) Thielemann (in 2022). From the very first note to the very last note, you didn’t realize more than an hour had gone by. Again, there’s that ability to narrate the whole thing through. Not everyone can do that.
Olsen: When I first joined the orchestra 20 years ago, I had a real thing against Bruckner. I had only played Bruckner’s Fifth Symphony one time as a student, and it was such a bad experience — it left a bad taste in my mouth. But this friend who’s our board chair (Lutgart Calcote) would always say, “Oh, the older you get, you’re going to appreciate it more.” I think that’s totally true.
The transformative thing for me was Haitink. The Bruckner 8 we did at Carnegie with Haitink (in 2009) was one of my all-time CSO concerts. I just remember thinking, “OK, I’m convinced now.”
Yu: Haitink was very organic. I think that’s his approach to everything. He didn’t do a lot of gesture; he sort of let it breathe and flow naturally. Muti tended to stretch things — we can call it a kind of liberty. When you think of Bruckner, that freedom doesn’t always happen, because most of the time it’s pretty squarely written.
Olsen: We’ve been lucky in Chicago to play Bruckner with some of the greatest Bruckner conductors. I still don’t know that I’d call myself a Bruckner fan, but I appreciate Bruckner now.
Q: You both are noting that strong leaders can keep Bruckner’s music from sagging under its own weight. But, of course, you won’t have a conductor for this quintet performance. How will you work together as an ensemble to address that?
Olsen: I think one advantage we have is that we’re all in the Chicago Symphony. We play a lot of Bruckner together and experience the same things. I go to a lot of chamber music festivals, and most of the people I play with are not full-time orchestral musicians. We have sort of a familiarity or a comfort with Bruckner that a professional (chamber group) might not, because they don’t have the same relationship and history with the music.
Yu: The second and third movement especially, I feel, will come together quite easily because of our relationship with Bruckner. The Scherzo is very signature in a Bruckner symphony, and the slow movement, also. Then, the last movement has that big ending.
Olsen: It’s exactly the way he would orchestrate a symphony finale.
Yu: My gosh, yeah. When I listen to this quintet, I have little issue trying to imagine how we would play it. The first movement is the one I have the most difficulty with. It just seems like it doesn’t develop. Even the first bar I find so bizarre. Usually in Bruckner symphonies we start with tremolo to set up the key before the melody comes in. For this, (the melody) comes in right away, but it’s not even F major — he’s in C, then F, and then he goes to, like, a D-flat major chord. So I’m already lost, thinking, “What key are we in?”
Olsen: I know what you’re saying. It feels a little disjointed. But I think that we’ll find an organic way with it.
Yu: Doing a little bit research and reading on (the quintet), I found an interview with Glenn Gould where he played all the parts of the slow movement on piano. He said, for him, it was the most beautiful thing Bruckner has ever written. To Ken’s earlier point, (Gould) also said that when he was younger, he played a lot of Chopin and Liszt, then, as he matured, he gravitated towards a more mature repertoire: Mahler, Strauss, Bruckner.
Q: That’s interesting that you both find the first movement most challenging. When Bruckner wrote the Quintet, one of the violinists he wrote it for (Joseph Hellmesberger Sr.) was convinced the Scherzo was the hardest movement, and Bruckner even had to write the Intermezzo to substitute for it. Do you see where he’s coming from at all?
Yu: I don’t know! The texture is not very thick, and the rhythm is not that complicated. It might be hard to hear the voicing in a few parts, but as a whole, I don’t think this is difficult. Maybe we’ll be surprised.
Olsen: Maybe we’re going to eat our words.
“Celebrating Bruckner’s 200th” is 3 p.m. Oct. 13 at Nichols Concert Hall, 1490 Chicago Ave., Evanston; tickets $8-$30; more information and season programming at civitasensemble.org
Hannah Edgar is a freelance critic.
The Rubin Institute for Music Criticism helps fund our classical music coverage. The Chicago Tribune maintains editorial control over assignments and content.
