Chamber music: Three string octets

The string octet offers the best of both worlds, combining the full resonance of a string orchestra with the soloistic virtuosity and clarity of a chamber music ensemble. Max Bruch, an incurable romantic, composed his swansong, the String Octet in B-Flat Major, towards the end of his life. A few years later, Dimitri Shostakovich would embrace modernity in his Prelude and Scherzo, opus 11. Reinhold Glière’s String Octet in D Major strikes a compro...