The String Quintet is Nielsen's only essay in the genre. The music bears the hallmarks of its talented and clever young composer: energy and stillness; singability and robust joy in instrumental music-making; deft handling of form. The first movement is an Allegro pastorale in 9/8, which is followed by a sustained, melodious Adagio that in turn gives way to a fiery Allegretto scherzando; the finale is an Allegro Molto that accelerates to Presto towards the conclusion. The first two movements, like the final two, share a number of characteristic figures, and it is pure joy to follow the motivic and contrapuntal working throughout this splendid piece of Danish chamber music. With expertise and inspiration drawn from the main Classical-Romantic repertoire, Nielsen at 23 demonstrated his sense of tradition no less than his unmistakable originality.