Program Notes

Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
Piano Quintet in E-Flat Major, Op. 44 (1842)

Notes for: July 18, 2006

Schumann’s Piano Quintet – a string quartet plus a piano – was the first work of its kind, and was made possible by the developing technical capabilities of that instrument. Mozart had written piano quartets (three strings plus piano), but the piano of his day could not produce the volume necessary to balance four stringed instruments. Schumann’s quintet, in contrast, was clearly intended as a new way to exploit the enriched resources of the piano, particularly in the hands of a virtuoso performer.

More specifically, Schumann’s quintet was made possible by the introduction in the early 19th century of the damper or sustaining pedal – the pedal now ordinarily on the right. When depressed, this mechanism enabled the performer to continue the sound produced by keys that his or her fingers were no longer depressing. This substantially increased the sonority of the instrument, and facilitated the production of a smooth legato, arpeggios and wide-spaced chords. Beethoven was the first to profit from this innovation, and his example was followed by the romantics, whose piano music would be unimaginable on a pedal-less instrument.

Schumann’s pioneer quintet became the model for a small but select line of similar works by other composers – Brahms, Franck, Dvorak, Fauré, Elgar, Reger, Bloch and Shostakovich. It is interesting that, with a single exception, each of these composers, including Schumann, wrote only one piano quintet, and that in each instance it was one of the composer’s most successful compositions. (The exception was Fauré, who wrote two piano quintets.) It was as if each composer felt challenged by the unique sonorities of this combination of instruments, but then found that it took only one effort to satisfy his curiosity about its possibilities.

Schumann’s quintet was written in 1842, the year in which, in one compulsive effort, he composed most of his major chamber-music compositions. Inspired by the great works of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, he first completed his three string quartets. He then had the idea of adding to the four instruments a piano part for his wife Clara, a renowned concert pianist, and the resulting piano quintet was written in less than three weeks.

The first public performance of the quintet took place in Leipzig the following January with Clara at the piano, and was an immediate success. Further, Berlioz, then a leading critic as well as a composer, was visiting from Paris, and his drum-beating for the work did more than anything else to establish Schumann’s reputation throughout Europe.

Today the quintet is generally regarded as the greatest of Schumann’s chamber-music works, and the peer of any for this instrumental combination. In a sense, it is really a piano concerto with a string quartet rather than an orchestral accompaniment. The piano carries one-half rather than one-fifth of the tonal body, and while it has no cadenza, its part is written out in a more brilliant virtuoso fashion than that of any of the strings. In many passages, in fact, the strings simply double one another in unison, octaves or simple chords. This blending of virtuoso piano writing with doubled strings, particularly when contrasted with characteristic Schumann moments of grace and charm, produces a degree of full-blooded excitement with few equals in the chamber-music repertoire.

The contrast between robust exuberance and gentle lyricism is evident at the outset in the main theme of the first movement. Note the big jumps of the opening two measures – they will recur in this form or in inversion throughout the work. The second theme, a wistful dialogue between the cello and viola, continues the lyricism. The development is based on the main theme only – the piano playing two long virtuoso passages against a simple string accompaniment, which quietly emphasizes the jumping intervals.

The second movement is a funeral march with two contrasting episodes. The first episode is repeated later in the movement, resulting in an A-B-A-C-A-B-A pattern. Like the second movement of Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony, the first episode is in a major key to provide some relief. The second episode is an agitated minor, with the theme derived from that of the march. Listen for the dramatic passage after the second episode when the agitation continues while the viola hoarsely recalls the march theme.

The third movement, a vigorous scherzo, shows what a resourceful composer can do with ascending and descending scales. There are two contrasting middle sections. The first is an inversion of the interval jumps of the main theme of the first movement. The second was originally much simpler, but Mendelssohn complained that it was not lively enough. Schumann rewrote it accordingly, and the result, with its flurries of 16th notes, is the work’s most demanding passage for the strings, particularly the cello.

The fourth movement is unorthodox in its key scheme and structure. At least three themes are stated and interlaced in a number of ways and a number of keys, leading to a tremendous climax. This is followed by an astounding coda in which the pianist pounds out with the right hand the main theme of the first movement – the theme with the jumping intervals – while the left hand and the other instruments play against it as a fugue the first theme of the finale.

Copyright © 2006 by Willard J. Hertz

Notes for: July 18, 2017

Schumann’s Piano Quintet was the first great chamber-music work that paired the piano with a string quartet. In the year Schumann wrote it, he was on a typical-for-Schumann emotional roller coaster. Married less than two years, he hated it when his wife Clara was on tour, but he also hated traveling with her and being in her shadow. At home and miserable while Clara was away early in 1842, he passed the time studying counterpoint and the string quartets of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. But he was depressed, drinking too much, and unable to compose. Robert blamed Clara. In their household book he wrote, “You deprive me of all my ideas right now. I can’t even put a single song together.” He quickly revived after she returned home. By the end of the year he had written three string quartets, a piano trio, a piano quartet, and the glorious Piano Quintet, his most famous chamber work.

It took Schumann less than three weeks to finish the Quintet, which he wrote for and dedicated to Clara. Not surprisingly, given Clara’s brilliance as a pianist and his own love of the instrument, the piano is front and center for much of the Quintet. But the work is also very much a lush exploration of the sonorities produced when piano and strings work together.

From the outset the Quintet is marked by what Ronald Taylor describes as “verve, enthusiasm, serenity, charm, and above all a sense of utter conviction, the feeling … that Schumann saw its entire course from the very moment of its joyful opening bars.” Schumann launches the work with a bold unison opening that will reappear in several guises later on. In one of Schumann’s magical transformations, this opening motif melts almost immediately into an expressive song. Next the cello and the viola present an equally disarming second theme. Virtuosic piano runs in the development section and a satisfyingly big sound at the end are among the highlights of a movement marked by Schumann’s melodic gifts and his sense of high drama.

Each of the movements that follow is brilliant in its own way. The solemn second movement has the air of a funeral march, although both a lyrical second subject played over a restless piano and an agitated middle section affect the opening mood. The instruments chase one other up and down the scale in the acrobatic Scherzo, which features two trios, the first a lyrical inversion of the first movement’s opening theme, the second a whirl of motion. The Quintet ends with an exultant Allegro that sweeps to a stunning coda: a fugue whose subjects are the first theme of the opening movement and the main theme of the finale. In terms of musical thrills, it doesn’t get much better than this.

Copyright © 2017 by Barbara Leish

Notes for: July 19, 2022

Schumann’s Piano Quintet was the first great chamber-music work that paired the piano with a string quartet. In the year Schumann wrote it, he was on a typical-for-Schumann emotional roller coaster. Miserable while his wife Clara was away on tour, he was depressed, drinking heavily, and unable to compose, although he did pass the time studying counterpoint and the string quartets of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. He quickly revived, however, after Clara returned home. By the end of the year he had written three string quartets, a piano trio, a piano quartet, and the glorious Piano Quintet, his most famous chamber work.

It took Schumann less than three weeks to finish the Quintet, which he wrote for and dedicated to Clara. Not surprisingly, given Clara’s brilliance as a pianist and his own love of the instrument, the piano is front and center for much of the Quintet. But the work is also very much a lush exploration of the sonorities produced when piano and strings work together.

From the outset the Quintet is marked by what Ronald Taylor describes as “the feeling … that Schumann saw its entire course from the very moment of its joyful opening bars.” Schumann launches the work with a bold unison opening that will reappear in several guises later on. In one of Schumann’s magical transformations, this opening motif melts almost immediately into an expressive song. Next the cello and the viola present an equally disarming second theme. Virtuosic piano runs in the development section and a satisfyingly big sound at the end are among the highlights of a movement marked by Schumann’s melodic gifts and his sense of high drama.

Each of the movements that follow is brilliant in its own way. The solemn second movement has the air of a funeral march, although both a lyrical second subject played over a restless piano and an agitated middle section affect the opening mood. The instruments chase one other up and down the scale in the acrobatic Scherzo, which features two trios, the first a lyrical inversion of the first movement’s opening theme, the second a whirl of motion. The Quintet ends with an exultant Allegro that sweeps to a stunning coda: a fugue whose subjects are the first theme of the opening movement and the main theme of the finale.

Clara was ill for the Quintet’s first private performance, so Felix Mendelssohn sight-read the demanding part for a memorable launch.

Copyright © 2022 by Barbara Leish