ARNOLD KRUG (1849-1904): Piano Quartet in C Minor, Op. 16, String Sextet, Op. 68.

Description: Born in Hamburg, Krug also spent most of his career there as a composition professor and choral conductor. His vocal works and piano pieces outnumber a small group of chamber pieces and two symphonies which makes this release all the more welcome since he was plainly an unquenchable font of lyrical melodies of warm, heart-gladdening mien and the slow movement of his 1896 sextet would have any raging breast quietly contemplating visions of heaven. The more youthful quintet of 1878-79 almost matches it in its adagio but also provides more up-tempo songfulness in its other three movements while avoiding the “passionate young man” stereotype of Germanic minor-key music; Schumann and Brahms are audible in the wings of the quintet but Krug is his own man in that gorgeous sextet. Linos Ensmble.