In classical music , a piano quintet is a work of chamber music written for piano and four other instruments. The genre particularly flourished in the nineteenth century.
Until the middle of the nineteenth century, the instrumentation most frequently consisted of piano, violin , viola , cello , and double bass . Following the phenomenal success of Robert Schumann 's Piano Quintet in E-flat major, Op. 44 in 1842, which paired the piano with a string quartet (i.e., two violins , viola , and cello ), composers began to adopt Schumann's instrumentation. Among the most frequently performed piano quintets, aside from Schumann's, are those by Franz Schubert , Johannes Brahms , Antonín Dvořák and Dmitri Shostakovich
The piano quintet before 1842
While the piano trio and piano quartet were firmly established in the eighteenth century by Mozart and others, the piano quintet did not come into its own as a genre 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. Not before the mid-nineteenth century was music ordinarily composed expressly for this combination of instruments. Although such classical composers as Luigi Boccherini wrote quintets for piano and string quartet, it was more common through the early nineteenth century for the piano to be joined by violin, viola, cello and double bass.
The first piano quintet written for this combination was the Piano Quintet in f minor, Op. 41, of Jan Ladislav Dussek (1799); works for the combination were also composed by Franz Schubert ( the "Trout" Quintet (1819)), Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1802, 1816), Ferdinand Ries (1817), and Louise Farrenc (1839, 1840). [ 4 ] [ 5 ]
Schumann and the Romantic piano quint
Not until the middle of the 19th century did Robert Schumann's Piano Quintet in E-Flat major , Op. 44 (1842)
VIDEO firmly establish music for piano and string quartet as a significant, and quintessentially Romantic, chamber music genre.
By 1842, the string quartet had evolved into the most important chamber music ensemble, and 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 concertante 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."
Schumann's quintet was immediately acclaimed and widely imitated.
Johannes Brahms was persuaded by Clara Schumann 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. Notable compositions by César Franck and Antonín Dvořák further solidifed the genre as a quintessential "vehicle for Romantic expression."
20th century
In the first half of the twentieth-century, the piano quintet attracted composers with strong roots in Romanticism, including Gabriel Fauré , Edward Elgar and Dmitri Shostakovich , all of whom composed noteworthy works in the genre. However, unlike the string quartet, which remained an important genre for twentieth-century composers, the piano quintet came to acquire "a somewhat conservative profile, far from major developments" in musical expression.
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
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Piano Quintet in E-flat major, K. 452 (for piano, oboe, clarinet, horn, and bassoon; 1784)
Ludwig van Beethoven
Piano Quintet in E-flat major, Op. 16 (for piano, oboe, clarinet, horn, and bassoon; 1796)
Luigi Boccherini
Piano Quintet Op. 56 No.1 in E minor, G 407
Piano Quintet Op. 56 No.2 in F major, G 408
Piano Quintet Op. 56 No.3 in C major, G 409
Piano Quintet Op. 56 No.4 in E-flat major, G 410
Piano Quintet Op. 56 No.5 in D major, G 411
Piano Quintet Op. 56 No.6 in A minor, G 412
Piano Quintet Op. 57 No.1 in A major, G 413
Piano Quintet Op. 57 No.2 in B-flat major, G 414
Piano Quintet Op. 57 No.3 in E minor, G 415
Piano Quintet Op. 57 No.4 in D minor, G 416
Piano Quintet Op. 57 No.5 in E major, G 417
Piano Quintet Op. 57 No.6 in C major, G 418
Jan Ladislav Dussek
Piano Quintet in F minor, Op. 41 (for piano, violin, viola, cello, and double bass; 1799)
19th century
Alexander Alyabyev
Piano Quintet No. 1 in E-flat major
Elfrida Andrée
Piano Quintet in E minor (1865)
Franz Berwald
Piano Quintet No. 1 in C minor (1853)
Piano Quintet No. 2 in A major (1857)
João Domingos Bomtempo
Piano Quintet in E-flat major Op. 16 (1813 or 1814)
Alexander Borodin
Piano Quintet in C minor (1862)
Johannes Brahms
Max Bruch
Piano Quintet in G minor Op. Post. (1886)
Alexis Castillon de Saint-Victor
Piano Quintet in E-flat major Op. 1 (1864)
George Whitefield Chadwick
Piano Quintet in E-flat major (1887)
Camille Chevillard
Piano Quintet in E-flat minor Op. 1 (1882)
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
Piano Quintet in G minor, Op. 1 (1893)
Johann Baptist Cramer
Piano Quintet in B-flat major, Op. 79 (for piano, violin, viola, cello, and double bass)
Carl Czerny
Ernő Dohnányi
Felix Draeseke
Piano Quintet in B-flat major, Op. 48, (for piano, violin, viola, cello, and horn; 1888)
Antonín Dvořák
Louise Farrenc
Piano Quintet No. 1 in A minor, Op. 30
Piano Quintet No. 2 in E major, Op. 31 (both with double bass)
Zdeněk Fibich
Piano Quintet in D major, Op. 42, (for piano, violin, clarinet, horn, and cello 1893)
Arthur Foote
Piano Quintet in A minor, Op. 38 (1897, publ. 1898)
César Franck
Eduard Franck
Friedrich Gernsheim
Piano Quintet no. 1 in D minor, op. 35
Piano Quintet no. 2 in B minor, op. 63, c. 1897
Hermann Goetz
Piano Quintet in C minor, Op. 16 (for piano, violin, viola, cello, and double bass; 1874)
Karl Goldmark
Piano Quintet No. 1 in B-flat major, Op. 30 (1879) [ 11 ]
Piano Quintet No. 2 in C-sharp minor, Op. 54 (1914?5? published 1916)
Théodore Gouvy
Piano Quintet in A major Op. 24 (1859)
Enrique Granados
Piano Quintet in G minor, Op. 49 (1894)
Peter Arnold Heise
Piano Quintet in F major (1869)
Heinrich von Herzogenberg
Piano Quintet in C major, Op. 17 (1876)
Johann Nepomuk Hummel
Piano Quintet in E-flat minor, Op. 87 (for piano, violin, viola, cello, and double bass; composed 1802, published 1822)
Piano Quintet in D minor, Op. 74 (transcribed for piano, violin, viola, cello, and double bass from the Op. 74 Septet; 1816)
August Klughardt
Piano quintet in G minor, Op. 43 (c. 1883)
Édouard Lalo
Franz Limmer
Piano Quintet in D minor, Op. 13 (for piano, violin, viola, cello, and double bass; c. 1830)
Giuseppe Martucci
Piano Quintet in C major, Op. 45 (1878)
Vítězslav Novák
Piano Quintet in A minor, Op. 12 (1896)
George onslow
Piano Quintet in B minor, Op. 70 (for piano, violin, viola, cello, and double bass; 1846)
Piano Quintet in G major, Op. 76 (for piano, violin, viola, cello, and double bass; 1846)
Ebenezer Prout
Piano Quintet in G major, Op. 3 (published 1870)
Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia
Piano Quintet in C minor, Op. 1 (publ. 1803)
Joachim Raff
Piano Quintet in A minor, Op. 107 (1862)
Max Reger
Piano Quintet No. 1 in C minor (1897–98)
Piano Quintet No. 2 in C minor, Op. 64 (1901–02)
Anton Reicha
Piano Quintet in C minor (1826)
Carl Reinecke
Piano Quintet in A major, Op. 83 (by 1865)
Ferdinand Ries
Piano Quintet in B minor, Op. 74 (for piano, violin, viola, cello, and double bass; 1809)
Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Quintet in B-flat major for Piano and Winds (for piano, flute, clarinet, horn and bassoon; 1876)
Anton Rubinstein
Piano Quintet in G minor, Op. 99 (1876?)
Camille Saint-Saëns
Franz Schubert
Piano Quintet in A major, D. 667 (popularly called the Trout Quintet; for piano, violin, viola, cello, and double bass; 1819)
Robert Schumann
Giovanni Sgambati
Piano Quintet No. 1 in F minor, Op. 4 (1866) [ 12 ]
Piano Quintet No. 2 in B-flat major, Op. 5
Jean Sibelius
Christian Sinding
Piano Quintet in E minor. Op. 5 (1882–84)
Louis Spohr
Piano Quintet No. 2, Op. 130 (1845)
Charles Villiers Stanford
Piano Quintet in D minor, Op. 25 (1886) [ 13 ]
Josef Suk
Piano Quintet in G minor, Op. 8 (1893, rev. 1915)
Ferdinand Thieriot
Ludwig Thuille
Piano Quintet in G minor, w/o Op. (1880) [ 14 ]
Piano Quintet in E-flat major, Op. 20 (1901) [ 15 ]
Charles-Marie Widor
Piano Quintet No. 1 in D minor, Op. 7 (1868) [ 16 ]
Piano Quintet No. 2 in D, Op. 68 (1894) [ 16 ]
Georges Martin Witkowski
Piano Quintet in B minor (1898)
Juliusz Zarębski
Piano Quintet in G minor, Op. 34 (1885)
1900 and after
Thomas Adès
James Aikman
Piano Quintet (1997) [ 17 ]
Franco Alfano
Piano Quintet in A-flat major (1946)
Anton Arensky
Piano Quintet in D major, Op. 51 (1900) [ 18 ]
Grażyna Bacewicz
Piano Quintet No. 1 (1952) [ 19 ]
Piano Quintet No. 2 (1965) [ 19 ]
Béla Bartók
Arnold Bax
Piano Quintet in G minor (1915)
Amy Beach
Wilhelm Berger
Piano Quintet in F minor, Op. 95 (1904)
Adolphe Biarent
Piano Quintet in D minor (1912)
Ernest Bloch
Piano Quintet No. 1 (1923)
Piano Quintet No. 2 (1957)
Frank Bridge
Piano Quintet in D minor (1905, revised 1912) ( [ 20 ] )
Stephen Brown
Piano Quintet No. 1, Eulogy for Meghan Reid (2009)
Piano Quintet No. 2, White Light White Heat (2015)
Elliott Carter
Quintet for Piano and String Quartet (1997)
Quintet for Piano and Winds (1991)
Georgy Catoire
Quintet for Piano and String Quartet, Op. 28 (1914)
Jean Cras
Quintet for Piano and String Quartet in C major (1924)
Théodore Dubois
Quintet for Piano, Violin, Oboe (or Clarinet or 2nd Violin), Viola and Cello in F major (1905)
Gabriel Dupont
Poème for Piano and String Quartet (1911)
Lucien Durosoir
Piano Quintet in F major (1925)
Edward Elgar
George Enescu
Gabriel Fauré
Morton Feldman
Piano and String Quartet (1985)
Ross Lee Finney
Two piano quintets (no. 2 written 1961)
James Friskin
Beat Furrer
Wilhelm Furtwängler
Piano Quintet in C major (completed 1935) [ 21 ]
Alberto Ginastera
Piano Quintet, Op. 29 (1963)
Otar Gordeli
Jorge Grundman
The Toughest Decision of God for Piano Quintet (2012)
Sofia Gubaidulina
Reynaldo Hahn
Piano Quintet in F-sharp minor (1922)
Roy Harris
Hamilton Harty
Piano Quintet in F major, Op. 12 (1904)
Hans Werner Henze
Alistair Hinton
Piano Quintet (1980–81; 2005–10)
Jean Huré
Piano Quintet in D major (1907–08)
Vincent d'Indy
Piano Quintet in G minor, Op. 81 (1924)
Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov
An Evening in Georgia, Op. 71 (for piano, flute, oboe, clarinet and bassoon, 1935)
Paul Juon
No.1 in D minor, Op. 33 (1906) with 2 Violas (version with 2 violins, viola and cello Op. 33a)
No.2, Op. 44 (1909)
Shigeru Kan-no
Piano Quintet WVE-180f (2002)
Charles Koechlin
Piano Quintet Op. 80 (1917–21)
Joonas Kokkonen
Erich Wolfgang Korngold
Piano Quintet in E major, Op. 15 (1921)
Alessandro Longo
Claude Ledoux
Paul Le Flem
Piano Quintet in E minor (1909)
Lowell Liebermann
Quintet for Piano and Strings Op. 34 (1990)