String sextets

[Kriton]

What at pity Brahms didn't  write  a 2vc quintet.

He did - after which he destroyed it in favor of a recast for 2 pianos (which he later on moulded into the famous piano quintet).

A fairly convincing reconstruction has been made by I believe an English musicologist, penned down in a bomb shelter during WW2 - or so the story goes. I have both recordings of this cello quintet, and turn to it more often than I do to the sonata for 2 pianos; I would not want to be without it. The credibility of the work is comparable to that of the nonet (Praga) which has been reconstructed from his 1st serenade - a sort of "refreshing" look on things. It remains guessing, of course, but educated guessing, nonetheless.

[JSK]

Borodin's sextet is quite beautiful, but only two movements survive.