There is no doubt that Hermann Goetz lived in the shadow of his illustrious contemporaries: all the more so as he died in 1876 at the age of 35, laid low by tuberculosis. His models were Schumann and Brahms, but his writing doesn't really give the impression of a straightforward epigone. In it, we hear new tendencies which would, over the coming decades, distil the influences of Dvořák or even Tchaikovsky. The Quintet Op. 16 of 1874, whose instrumental format follows that of Schubert's The Trout – violin, viola, cello, piano and double bass – starts off with a certain austerity, but the development of the work slowly but surely clears with a touch of hard-won optimism at the end of the final movement. On the other hand, the Piano Quartet Op. 6 of 1867 takes a more amiable tack, and frequently recalls the later Mendelssohn. Note also that this album is a re-release of a 2004 offering, but we're not complaining, as recordings of Goetz's works are sadly few and far between. © SM/Qobuz