Notes for: July 20, 2010
Brahms was a demanding self-critic, endlessly rewriting his music until he was satisfied, and often tearing up manuscripts that he felt were beyond saving. It is estimated that the 24 chamber works of Brahms that we know today constitute no more than one-fourth of those he started.
In the Piano Quintet he carried this hypercritical behavior to an extreme. He originally wrote the work in 1862 as a string quintet with two cellos. However, his close friend and musical adviser, the violinist Joseph Joachim, thought the piece lacked charm and urged the composer to “mitigate the harshness of some passages.” After a number of unsuccessful efforts to remedy these shortcomings, Brahms converted the work into a sonata for two pianos, which he performed in public early in 1864.
But this time another friend, the pianist Clara Schumann, missed the richness of the strings. Mindful of her husband Robert’s great Piano Quintet – that is, a piano plus four strings – she suggested that solution to Brahms. During the summer of 1864, consequently, Brahms recast the same material once more. He finally approved the work as we know it for publication in 1865, but, still doubtful, he also published the piano duet version as Opus 34a.
Today, the quintet is the most frequently performed of all Brahms’s chamber music. Further, it is one of the most effective blendings in the literature of the tonal resources of the piano and four stringed instruments, with the piano providing the missing power and the strings the warm tone color of the original quintet.
The opening unison theme for piano, violin and cello creates a powerful and majestic mood for the entire first movement. The melodic richness of the movement is overwhelming – there are no fewer than five themes, all brilliantly expanded and developed. The quiet second theme is an example of Brahms’s predilection for balancing duple against triple rhythms, in this case offsetting equal pairs of notes in the melody with ostinato triplets in the piano.
The second movement is more tender and song-like. The piano introduces the warm, gentle, main theme against a subdued string accompaniment. The intensity increases as the theme of the contrasting middle section is presented, in unison, by the second violin and viola. The music rises to some tension, but the tranquil main theme returns to close the movement.
The scherzo is marked by swift changes in mood, starting with a shadowy theme over a pizzicato pulse on the bottom note of the cello. Brahms then alternates that theme with a brisk 2/4 march and a thumping chordal strain fortissimo. The music builds to a sudden cut-off, followed by a sharply contrasting trio. The main section is then repeated.
A dark introduction opens the final movement, but this eventually gives way to the main theme, a sauntering tune for cello, marked tranquillo. Other themes are introduced, and the tension gradually builds. Finally, a long coda ends the quintet in a burst of energy, with masterful contrapuntal development of the movement’s themes.
Notes for: July 30, 2013
Brahms was a demanding self-critic, endlessly rewriting his music until he was satisfied, and often tearing up manuscripts that he felt were beyond saving. It is estimated that the 24 chamber works of Brahms that we know today constitute no more than one-fourth of those he started.
In the Piano Quintet, he carried this hypercritical behavior to an extreme. He originally wrote the work in 1862 as a string quintet with two cellos. However, his close friend and musical adviser, the violinist Joseph Joachim, thought the piece lacked charm and urged the composer to “mitigate the harshness of some passages.” After a number of unsuccessful efforts to remedy these shortcomings, Brahms converted the work into a sonata for two pianos, which he performed in public early in 1864.
But this time another friend, the pianist Clara Schumann, missed the richness of the strings. Mindful of her husband Robert’s great Piano Quintet – that is, a piano plus four strings – she suggested that solution to Brahms. During the summer of 1864, consequently, Brahms recast the same material once more. Finally, in 1865, he approved the work as we know it for publication, but, still doubtful, he also published the piano duet version as Opus 34a.
Today, the quintet is the most frequently performed of all Brahms’s chamber-music works. Further, it is one of the most effective blendings in the literature of the tonal resources of the piano and four stringed instruments. The piano provides the missing power and the strings the missing warmth of the original versions.
The opening unison theme for piano, violin and cello creates a powerful and majestic mood for the entire first movement, allegro non troppo. The melodic richness of the movement is overwhelming – there are no fewer than five themes, all brilliantly expanded and developed. The quiet second theme is an example of Brahms’s predilection for balancing duple against triple rhythms, in this case offsetting equal pairs of notes in the melody with ostinato (continuously repeated) triplets in the piano.
The second movement, andante, un poco adagio, is more tender and song-like. The piano introduces the warm, gentle, main theme against a subdued string accompaniment. The intensity increases as the theme of the contrasting middle section is presented, in unison, by the second violin and viola. The music rises to some tension, but the tranquil main theme returns to close the movement.
The scherzo, allegro, is marked by swift changes in mood, starting with a shadowy theme over a pizzicato pulse on the bottom note of the cello. Brahms then alternates that theme with a brisk 2/4 march and a thumping chordal strain fortissimo. The music builds to a sudden cut-off, followed by a sharply contrasting trio. The main section is then repeated.
A dark introduction opens the final movement, poco sostenuto, but this eventually gives way to the main theme, a sauntering tune for cello, marked tranquillo. Other themes are introduced, and the tension gradually builds. A long coda ends the quintet in a burst of energy, with masterful contrapuntal development of the movement’s themes.
Notes for: July 31, 2018
Brahms’s Piano Quintet is the work of a master at the height of his powers. Brahms first wrote it as a string quintet, but Joseph Joachim questioned the scoring, telling Brahms that “the instrumentation is not energetic enough to convey the powerful rhythmic convulsions.” Consequently, Brahms turned the music into a sonata for two pianos. Now it was Clara Schumann who had objections. “It is masterly from every point of view,” she wrote to Brahms, but “it is not a sonata.” Clara thought it demanded an entire orchestra. Brahms wasn’t yet ready to undertake a symphony, though, so, instead, he prepared a third rescoring, for piano and strings. This time Clara approved. Brahms, finally, had found the right combination of instruments to bring out the exceptional richness and complexity of his magnificent creation.
The Piano Quintet is considered by many to be Brahms’s crowning chamber-music achievement. It is a work of powerful lyricism, in which small motivic ideas play key roles in carrying out a grandly conceived formal design. All of the characteristic Brahmsian traits are here: the dramatic intensity, the lush lyricism, the rhythmic adventurousness, and the intricate thematic and tonal innovations. What is added is a sense of dramatic progression that links the four movements and gives the work an overall unity.
From the opening measures, Brahms indicates how he will handle his material to achieve both unity of form and great emotional impact. After a quiet beginning, in stark octaves, the music explodes as Brahms speeds up the theme – one of the many rhythmic devices he uses to great effect throughout this majestic movement. The opening theme also introduces the falling halftones that become a unifying motif throughout the Quintet. A wealth of melodic ideas follows, in sharply contrasting moods and varied rhythms. The movement ends with a striking coda that begins quietly and ends, fortissimo, with the same explosive energy and passion that opened the Quintet.
The Andante that follows is as lyrical and tender as the first movement is stormy and tense, and as relatively straightforward as the first movement is complex. It’s a respite before the return of intensity and passion in the Scherzo. Another richly inventive movement, driven by syncopation and displaced downbeats, the Scherzo is built from three successive themes: the first shadowy, the second energetically rhythmic, the third bold and vehement. A lyrical trio provides a brief island of calm. Among the highlights of the Finale are a trove of thematic ideas, starting with the Slavic-sounding dance theme that Brahms introduces after a strange, somber opening. There’s an energetic Presto, and an extended coda that’s a whirlwind of verve and powerful sound – a big, orchestral-like ending that must have delighted Clara.