Piano quintet

Last updated

The Swiss piano quintet: sitting Willy Rehberg (piano) and Rigo (viola), standing Louis Rey (first violin), Emile Rey (second violin) and Adolphe Rehberg (cello), c. 1900. Rey freres et Rehberg freres.jpg
The Swiss piano quintet: sitting Willy Rehberg (piano) and Rigo (viola), standing Louis Rey (first violin), Emile Rey (second violin) and Adolphe Rehberg (cello), c. 1900.

In classical music, a piano quintet is a work of chamber music written for piano and four other instruments, most commonly (since 1842) a string quartet (i.e., two violins, viola, and cello). The term also refers to the group of musicians that plays a piano quintet. The genre flourished during the nineteenth century.

Contents

Until the middle of the nineteenth century, most piano quintets were scored for piano, violin, viola, cello, and double bass. Following the success of Robert Schumann's Piano Quintet in E♭ major, Op. 44 in 1842, which paired the piano with a string quartet, composers increasingly adopted Schumann's instrumentation, and it was this form of the piano quintet that dominated during the second half of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth century.

Among the best known and most frequently performed piano quintets, aside from Schumann's, are Schubert's Trout quintet and the piano quintets of Johannes Brahms, César Franck, Antonín Dvořák and Dmitri Shostakovich. [1]

The piano quintet before 1842

While the related chamber music genres of the piano trio and piano quartet were established in the eighteenth century by Mozart and others, the piano quintet did not come into its own until the nineteenth century. [2] Its roots extend into the late Classical period, when piano concertos were sometimes transcribed for piano with string quartet accompaniment. [3]

Although Luigi Boccherini composed quintets for piano and string quartet, before 1842 it was more common for the piano to be joined by violin, viola, cello and double bass. Among the best known quintets for this combination of instruments are Franz Schubert's "Trout" Quintet in A major (1819) and Johann Nepomuk Hummel's Piano Quintet in E-flat minor, Op.87 (1802). Other piano quintets using this instrumentation were composed by Jan Ladislav Dussek (1799), Ferdinand Ries (1817), Johann Baptist Cramer (1825, 1832), Henri Jean Rigel (1826), Johann Peter Pixis (ca.1827), Franz Limmer (1832), Louise Farrenc (1839, 1840), and George Onslow (1846, 1848, 1849). [4] [5]

Mozart (in 1784) and Ludwig van Beethoven (in 1796) each composed a quintet for piano and winds, scored for piano, oboe, clarinet, horn, and bassoon, that are sometimes referred to as piano quintets.

Schumann and the Romantic piano quintet

Robert Schumann, lithograph by Josef Kriehuber, in 1839, three years before the composition of his piano quintet. Robert Schumann 1839.jpg
Robert Schumann, lithograph by Josef Kriehuber, in 1839, three years before the composition of his piano quintet.

In the middle of the 19th century, Robert Schumann's Piano Quintet in E♭ major, Op. 44 (1842), composed for piano with string quartet, helped establish that combination of instruments as the typical model for the piano quintet. Schumann's choice of scoring reflected developments in musical performance and instrumental design.

By midcentury, the string quartet was regarded as the most prestigious and important chamber music genre, while advances in the design of the piano had expanded its power and dynamic range. Bringing the piano and string quartet together, Schumann's piano quintet took full advantage of the expressive possibilities of these forces in combination, alternating conversational passages between the five instruments with passages in which the combined forces of the strings are massed against the piano. In Schumann's hands, the piano quintet became a genre "suspended between private and public spheres" alternating between "quasi-symphonic and more properly chamber-like elements"—well suited to an era when chamber music was increasingly being performed in large concert halls rather than at private gatherings in intimate spaces. [6]

Schumann's quintet helped establish the piano quintet as a significant chamber music genre during the Romantic period in classical music. [7] It was immediately acclaimed and widely imitated. [1] [8] Johannes Brahms, for example, was persuaded by Clara Schumann (who had played the piano part in the first public performance of her husband's piano quintet) to rework a sonata for two pianos as a piano quintet. The result, the Piano Quintet in F minor (1864), is one of the most frequently performed works of the genre. [9]

Subsequent compositions such as César Franck's Piano Quintet in F minor (1879) and Antonín Dvořák's Piano Quintet #2 in A major, Op. 81 (1887) further solidified the genre as a "vehicle for Romantic expression." [1]

20th century

In the twentieth century, the piano quintet repertoire was expanded with contributions by composers such as Béla Bartók, Sergei Taneyev, Louis Vierne, Edward Elgar, Amy Beach, Gabriel Fauré, and Dmitri Shostakovich. However, unlike the string quartet, which remained an important chamber music genre for musical experimentation, the piano quintet came to acquire "a somewhat conservative profile, far from major developments" in musical expression. [10]

List of compositions for piano quintet

The following is a partial list of compositions for piano quintet. All works are scored for piano and string quartet unless otherwise noted.

Before 1800

19th century

1900 and after

A

B

C–E

F–G

H–K

L–M

N–Q

R

S

T–Z

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">String quartet</span> Musical ensemble of four string players

The term string quartet can refer to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two violinists, a violist, and a cellist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chamber music</span> Form of classical music composed for a small group of instruments

Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers, with one performer to a part. However, by convention, it usually does not include solo instrument performances.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piano Quintet (Schumann)</span> 1842 chamber work by Robert Schumann

The Piano Quintet in E-flat major, Op. 44, by Robert Schumann was composed in 1842 and received its first public performance the following year. Noted for its "extroverted, exuberant" character, Schumann's piano quintet is considered one of his finest compositions and a major work of nineteenth-century chamber music. Composed for piano and string quartet, the work revolutionized the instrumentation and musical character of the piano quintet and established it as a quintessentially Romantic genre.

A piano quartet is a chamber music composition for piano and three other instruments, or a musical ensemble comprising such instruments. Those other instruments are usually a string trio consisting of a violin, viola and cello.

The Piano Quintet in F minor, Op. 34, by Johannes Brahms was completed during the summer of 1864 and published in 1865. It was dedicated to Her Royal Highness Princess Anna of Hesse. As with most piano quintets composed after Robert Schumann's Piano Quintet (1842), it is written for piano and string quartet.

A piano sextet is a composition for piano and five other musical instruments, or a group of six musicians who perform such works. There is no standard grouping of instruments with that name, and compared to the string quartet or piano quintet literature, relatively few such compositions exist. The best-known piano sextet is probably the Sextet by Poulenc, one of the pinnacles of the wind and piano repertoire. Chausson's Concert is widely regarded as one of the masterpieces of French strings and piano chamber music literature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heinrich Marschner</span> German composer (1795–1861)

Heinrich August Marschner was a German composer best known for his operas. He is considered to be the most important composer of German opera between Weber and Wagner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Onslow (composer)</span> French composer (1784–1853)

André George(s) Louis Onslow was a French composer of English descent. His wealth, position and personal tastes allowed him to pursue a path unfamiliar to most of his French contemporaries, more similar to that of his contemporary German romantic composers; his music also had a strong following in Germany and in England. His principal output was chamber music, but he also wrote four symphonies and four operas. Onslow was esteemed by critics of his time, but his reputation declined swiftly after his death. It has only been revived in recent years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Kahn (composer)</span> German composer, pianist, and music teacher

Robert Kahn was a German composer, pianist, and music teacher.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Woldemar Bargiel</span> German composer (1828–1897)

Woldemar Bargiel was a German composer and conductor of the Romantic period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Théodore Gouvy</span> French/German composer

Louis Théodore Gouvy was a French/German composer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ludwig Thuille</span> Austrian composer and teacher

Ludwig Wilhelm Andreas Maria Thuille was an Austrian composer and teacher, numbered for a while among the leading operatic composers of the so-called Munich School of composers, whose most famous representative was Richard Strauss.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eduard Franck</span> German composer, pianist and music pedagogue

Eduard Franck was a German composer, pianist and music pedagogue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louise Farrenc</span> French composer (1804–1875)

Louise Farrenc was a French composer, virtuoso pianist and teacher of the Romantic period. Her compositions include three symphonies, a few choral works, numerous chamber pieces and a wide variety of piano music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louis Glass</span> Danish composer (1864-1936)

Louis Christian August Glass was a Danish composer.

Louis-Casimir Escoffier, known primarily as Casimir Ney or L. Casimir-Ney was a French composer and one of the foremost violists of the 19th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piano Quartet No. 1 (Mozart)</span>

Mozart's Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor, K. 478, is scored for violin, viola, cello, and pianoforte. It was composed in 1785.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piano Quartet (Schumann)</span> Piano Quartet by Robert Schumann (1842)

The Piano Quartet in E♭ major, Op. 47, was composed by Robert Schumann in 1842 for piano, violin, viola and cello. Written during a productive period in which he produced several large-scale chamber music works, it has been described as the "creative double" of his Piano Quintet, finished weeks earlier. Though dedicated to the Russian cellist Mathieu Wielhorsky, it was written with Schumann's wife Clara in mind, who would be the pianist at the premiere on 8 December 1844 in Leipzig.

Johannes Brahms' String Quartet No. 1 in C minor and String Quartet No. 2 in A minor were completed in Tutzing, Bavaria, during the summer of 1873, and published together that autumn as Op. 51. They are dedicated to his friend Theodor Billroth. He only published one other string quartet, No. 3 in B-flat Major, in 1876.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piano Quintet (Franck)</span>

César Franck's Piano Quintet in F minor is a quintet for piano, 2 violins, viola, and cello. The work was composed in 1879 and has been described as one of Franck's chief achievements alongside his other late works such as Symphony in D minor, the Symphonic Variations, the String Quartet, and the Violin Sonata.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Robin Stowell; Jonathan Cross (2003). The Cambridge Companion to the String Quartet. Cambridge University Press. p. 324. ISBN   978-0-521-00042-0.
  2. ↑ The quintets for piano, oboe, clarinet, horn, and bassoon composed by Mozart and Beethoven are usually described as "quintets for piano and winds" so as to distinguish them from compositions for piano and four strings.
  3. ↑ Willi Apel (28 November 2003). The Harvard Dictionary of Music. Harvard University Press. p. 699. ISBN   978-0-674-01163-2.
  4. ↑ Smallman, Basil (1996). The Piano Quartet and Quintet: Style, Structure, and Scoring. Clarendon Press. p. 3. ISBN   978-0-19-816640-5.
  5. ↑ Basil Smallman (1996). The Piano Quartet and Quintet: Style, Structure, and Scoring. Clarendon Press. p. 26. ISBN   978-0-19-816640-5.
  6. ↑ John Daverio, 'Robert Schumann: Herald of a "New Poetic Age."' (1997, Oxford), p. 256
  7. ↑ Stowell, Robin The Cambridge Companion to the String Quartet, pp. 323–324.
  8. ↑ Smallman, Basil. The Piano Quartet and Quintet: Style, Structure, and Scoring, p. 53.
  9. ↑ http://www.kennedy-center.org/calendar/?fuseaction=composition&composition_id=2431 Archived 13 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine Rodda, Richard E. "Piano Quintet in F minor, Op. 34," n.p.
  10. ↑ Stowell, Robin. The Cambridge Companion to the String Quartet, p. 325.
  11. ↑ "Goldmark Quintets". Archived from the original on 17 February 2012. Retrieved 4 August 2009.
  12. ↑ "Description Page – Sgambati First Piano Quintet". Edition Silvertrust. Archived from the original on 30 April 2011. Retrieved 4 August 2009.
  13. ↑ "Description Page – Stanford Piano Quintet". Edition Silvertrust. Archived from the original on 3 December 2008. Retrieved 4 August 2009.
  14. ↑ "Description of Disc with Both of Thuille's Quintets". Archived from the original on 28 June 2011. Retrieved 4 August 2009.
  15. ↑ "Description Page – Thuille Piano Quintet in E flat". Edition Silvertrust. Archived from the original on 17 February 2012. Retrieved 4 August 2009.
  16. 1 2 "List of works by Charles-Marie Widor". IMSLP. Archived from the original on 26 February 2014. Retrieved 10 March 2014.
  17. ↑ "James Aikman – Piano Quintet". Non-Sequitur Music Publishing. Archived from the original on 29 March 2018. Retrieved 17 September 2014.
  18. ↑ "ARENSKI Anton Stéphanovitch Suites pour piano n°1 à 5". abeillemusique.com. Archived from the original on 19 July 2011. Retrieved 24 December 2010.
  19. 1 2 "Bacewicz Worklist". Polish Music Information Center. 1998–2003. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 6 August 2009.
  20. ↑ Trevor Bray (24 June 1965). "Frank Bridge: A Life in Brief ~ Appendix 3: List of Works: 122". Trevor-bray-music-research.co.uk. Archived from the original on 21 July 2011. Retrieved 24 December 2010.
  21. ↑ "Catalogue". Archived from the original on 23 May 2021. Retrieved 23 May 2021.
  22. ↑ "FURTWANGLER Piano Quintet [RB]: Classical Reviews- Aug 2002 MusicWeb(UK)". Musicweb-international.com. Archived from the original on 5 June 2011. Retrieved 24 December 2010.
  23. ↑ "Object Metadata". Archived from the original on 8 June 2021. Retrieved 8 June 2021.
  24. ↑ "** Joan Panetti, composer **". joanpanetti.com. Archived from the original on 7 December 2022. Retrieved 1 December 2022.
  25. ↑ "Chaconne for piano quintet | Janet Peachey, Composer". Archived from the original on 1 December 2022. Retrieved 1 December 2022.
  26. ↑ "List of works". Archived from the original on 22 July 2022. Retrieved 22 July 2022.
  27. ↑ Alan Rawsthorne: A Bio-Bibliography at Google Books. p. 33.
  28. ↑ Rochberg, George; Gene Rochberg. Five Lines, Four Spaces: The World of My Music at Google Books. p. 111.
  29. ↑ "The Scotsman, 9 November 2007". Archived from the original on 27 September 2011. Retrieved 22 April 2018.
  30. ↑ "CCM :: Wright, Margot Wright". Archived from the original on 9 June 2021. Retrieved 9 June 2021.
  31. ↑ Piano Quintet Op. 1 : Scores at the International Music Score Library Project

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.