Instead of a string quartet, Bruckner composed a viola quintet, starting the composition in December 1878 and ended it on 12 July 1879.

[2] The first three movements were premiered by the Winkler Quartet with Franz Schalk joining on second viola[3] on November 17, 1881 in Vienna.

Bruckner's only large chamber music work is symphonic, but also contains clearly distinct instrumental part writing.A wealth of musical ideas is unfolded: Polyphony and motive-thematic work play a significant role, and a colourful pattern is established by the deployment of the tessituras and the voices of all the instruments, with audacious modulations, theme inversions and half-tone key changes (e.g., the Adagio in G-flat major).Differently from in Bruckner's symphonies, the form is more compact and the score starts with a clear melodic profile in 3/4 on a pedal point of the cello.

The combination of all musical ideas at the end of the first movement, and the three-thematic setting of the finale are also similar to that of Bruckner's symphonies.

The Viennese violinist and conductor Josef Hellmesberger has obviously made the difference that Bruckner even tackled the composition of a larger chamber music work.

"[15] And Göllerich continues to write: "Although Hellmesberger at first was unable to push the master to perfection, he received 'regular finger pain' when it was scheduled for the evenings of his quartet.

Instead, the enlarged Winkler Quartet (Julius Winkler, Carl Lillich, Hans Kreuzinger, Julius Desing, Theodor Lucca) played the work of the string quintet for the first time on 17 November 1881 in the Bösendorfer Hall of the Musikverein Vienna on the initiative of the Bruckner-admirer Josef Schalk an "internal evening" of the Akademische Wagner-Verein.

While the Viennese critics Gustav Dömpcke, Max Kalbeck and Eduard Hanslick responded to the string quintet dismissively to hostile, the Bruckner admirers Theodor Helm and Ludwig Speidel praised the originality and sound beauty of the new work.

Thus, in 1884, Theodor Helm emphasized: "While the finale of the Bruckner Quintet – at least the effect of first-time listening – is in doubt, the three remaining movements are of the highest interest, especially in the happy and original invention of the motives.

But the pearl of the quintet is the Adagio (in G-flat major), one of the noblest, most enlightened, tenderest and most beautiful in sound, written in modern times [...].

This adagio looks rather as if it were a play, only now found in Beethoven's estate, from the last time of the master and animated by his fullest inspiration.

"[17] The first movement in the ¾-beat is characterized by the, presented by the First Violin, "deviating in the ter-related D-major, genuinely romantic main theme.

After a general pause, a mock recital begins, in which the main theme is engrossed, until finally the first violin leads to the actual reprise.

Striking is the frequent use of sixths in the Ländler-like eighth-note of the first viola, which is due to the line of the second violin and the violoncello of the first part and refers directly to the trio in Scherzo.

The artfully crafted work, called Moderato, was first published in 1913 and is sometimes used as an additional movement in performances of the string quintet.

"[23] Ernst Kurth emphasizes:" As independent as the voices live in their counterpoint, the sense of sound and boundary blasting is missing, they seek more density, unification, and more.

The choice of a suitably high-ranking personality as dedicatee shows the importance that Bruckner attaches to his string quintet.

Hans Stadlmair has set up the string quintet for a choral performance and also added double basses.

Gottfired Kraus states: "Only the additional use of double basses creates new possibilities of expression, the great string sound lets us recognize in Bruckner's unmistakable language, the role models, not least the influence of Richard Wagner more clearly than in the comparatively brittle chamber music version of the case .

Gerd Schaller has made an adaptation for a large orchestra (two woodwinds, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani and strings): "The orchestral version shows that the Bruckner style basically exists across all genres, thanks to its ingenious, highly individual art forms in the case of this quintet arrangement leads to the winning of a new symphonic dimension for the large concert hall.

"[28] The CD recording with the Radio Symphony Orchestra Prague (conductor: Gerd Schaller) was published in 2018 by Label Profile Edition Günter Hänssler (PH16036).

In the first issue (Gutmann), it is put as "Adagio" in third position after the scherzo.In 1884, Bruckner brought some changes and additions to the score, mainly a different coda to the finale.