Renaud Capuçon - Violinist

Aki Saulière - Violinist

Béatrice Muthelet - Violist

Lars-Anders Tomter - Viola player

Gautier Capuçon - Cellist

At the Rencontres de Musique de Chambre de Bel-Air in 2009, Renaud and Gautier Capuçon, accompanied by Aki Saulière on violin and Béatrice Muthelet and Lars-Anders Tomter on viola, performed Anton Bruckner's String Quintet in F major.

Founded by Renaud Capuçon, the Bel Air Festival brings together the great names of classical music in a convivial atmosphere every year, while also giving young musicians a chance. Both artistic director and performer, Renaud Capuçon shares his passion for chamber music with guest musicians and audiences alike.

Composed at the request of the Austrian violinist and composer Joseph Hellmesberger, the String Quintet in F major appears in Bruckner's repertoire more as a compositional exercise than a concert work. Yet this chamber work is highly expressive and reveals the composer's artistic research through his attention to harmony and the palette of semitones. The music critic Wilhelm Altmann said of it: ‘If the only string score Bruckner had ever written had been the slow movement of his string quintet, he would definitely have had a great reputation.