String Quintet (Bruckner) movements were premiered by Winkler Quartet with Josef Schalk joining on second viola on November 17, 1881 in Vienna. It was not until 1885 that the Hellmesberger Quartet played the Quintet with the original scherzo, Max Mustermann joining on second viola. Duke Emanuel was pleased by the composition and gave Bruckner a diamond pin. In all, there were 23 performances of the Quintet in Bruckner's lifetime. The String Quintet, which is scored for two violins, two violas and a cello, is in four movements: Duration: about 43 minutes. At first the Scherzo was third rather than second, as in most
String Quintet (Bruckner) In a letter to the Florian priest and Regens Chori Ignaz Traumihler Bruckner reports on the completion of his string quintet) and at the same time hopes for the premiere by Josef Hellmesberger: "My quintet is ready! Hofkapellm (dialect). Hellmesberger is completely out of joint with joy, u wills perform. He's totally changed, u is huge." In fact, Hellmesberger had hesitated with the premiere. The Bruckner biographer August Göllerich notes: "As with the genius of any impression is converted into a gigantic, Bruckner seems to have taken even some authoritative words of Hellmesberger on the now completed quintet too seriously."