Piano Quintets

[cloughie]

I don't know the Florent Schmitt - indeed, I am stuck to think of anything he wrote the Music of which I can remember. I shall endeavour to make room later today to change that situation.

ferney - you should remedy that with this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o71zM7kuUl8 or

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmWpudUVkdY

[Richard Barrett]

The work for the combination of the instruments concerned which I have most time for is not titled "quintet". No prizes for guessing which piece I am referring to.

It may not be titled "quintet" but the title does mention the instrumentation, if I'm not mistaken.

There is also this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu95HFDYkeY

[ahinton]

Well, having Corrado Canonici or Stefano Scodanibbio around must be an encouragement. Sadly, for very different reasons, no longer an option.

Quite. There could - and ought to - be a resolution of the former but his mind seems to be made up; as to the latter, it can indeed no longer be an option.

[Bryn]

It may not be titled "quintet" but the title does mention the instrumentation, if I'm not mistaken.

There is also this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu95HFDYkeY

Well yes, and I have a couple of recordings of that work, but I do not have as much time for it. It's far shorter in duration than the work you have, I think, correctly identified as that to which I was referring. Though I have several recordings of the longer work, I have only heard it in concert twice, once with the string players using baroque bows, once with a slightly different complement of players using modern bows.

[ahinton]

It may not be titled "quintet" but the title does mention the instrumentation, if I'm not mistaken.

I'm pretty sure that you are not mistaken!

There is also this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu95HFDYkeY

I must confess that I've never heard this before; as it's yet another irritating example of a performance uploaded to YouTube with no performer credits, do you happen to know who's playing it?

[Bryn]

... I must confess that I've never heard this before; as it's yet another irritating example of a performance uploaded to YouTube with no performer credits, do you happen to know who's playing it?

The YouTube upload is fully credited. Just click the "SHOW MORE" button.

[Richard Barrett]

Some others I've heard from the last few decades: Carter (uncharacteristically lugubrious, but so is the Xenakis I suppose), Furrer (does the things his music generally does), W Zimmermann (I remember this being interesting from when I heard it, but I don't remember anything else about it), Barrett (awaiting a satisfactory performance/recording)... Adès has been mentioned already, it didn't do a lot for me.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Some others I've heard from the last few decades: Carter (uncharacteristically lugubrious, but so is the Xenakis I suppose), Furrer (does the things his music generally does), W Zimmermann (I remember this being interesting from when I heard it, but I don't remember anything else about it), Barrett (awaiting a satisfactory performance/recording)... Adès has been mentioned already, it didn't do a lot for me.

Not Dillon's Soadie Waste?

Interesting idea about the autonomy of Piano Solo and String Quartet - but Piano Solo and Orchestra are similarly autonomous, and yet all those Concertos ... (And would 18th Century composers really be disheartened by the challenges and opportunities offered by combining two such discrete media? Especially seeing how, once it was done (and done so successfully by Schumann) it caught on so widely?

[Pulcinella]

Is there a good reason why no-one has yet mentioned Shostakovich?
Surely one of the finest examples of the genre.

Must try the Schnittke again; perhaps the recording that I had, which I gave away, did not do it full justice.

[ahinton]

The YouTube upload is fully credited. Just click the "SHOW MORE" button.

For some reason it didn't show at all when I first visited it but does so now. Many thanks anyway. That said, it's surprising how many peformances get uploaded to YouTube uncredited.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Has anyone ever heard Salomon's arrangements of Haydn's London Symphonies for Piano Quintet & Flute? (There are recordings by Arco Baleno, but I don't know them.)

[vinteuil]

Interesting idea about the autonomy of Piano Solo and String Quartet - but Piano Solo and Orchestra are similarly autonomous, and yet all those Concertos ... (And would 18th Century composers really be disheartened by the challenges and opportunities offered by combining two such discrete media? Especially seeing how, once it was done (and done so successfully by Schumann) it caught on so widely?

... yes - and there are those JC and CPE Keyboard Quintets, with k'board and various.

It is curious, isn't it: given the importance of works for Piano solo and String Quartet in the output of so many composers, nobody seems to have actually written a work which combines the two before Schumann? Quintets for Piano & winds as Cloughie mentions - Piano Trios and Quartets a-plenty, but not Piano and String Quartet. (Schubert got close, but violin, viola, 'cello, & Double Bass isn't yer orthodox "String Quartet".)

And what about the Boccherini piano quintets [ "per forte-piano, 2 violini, viola, e violoncello" ] op 56 and op 57 of 1797 and 1798/99 -

http://amzn.eu/dtSc3yl

.

[Richard Barrett]

Not Dillon's Soadie Waste?

Interesting idea about the autonomy of Piano Solo and String Quartet - but Piano Solo and Orchestra are similarly autonomous, and yet all those Concertos ... (And would 18th Century composers really be disheartened by the challenges and opportunities offered by combining two such discrete media? Especially seeing how, once it was done (and done so successfully by Schumann) it caught on so widely?

Oh yes, I forgot about Dillon. I'm sure there are others which also didn't spring immediately to mind. One issue of course is that it's expensive for promoters to book a piano soloist AND a string quartet for the same evening.

As for piano concertos, I do think that's a quite different situation though I would have to have a good long hard think about why I would make that claim. And as for catching on widely, you'd have to say not that widely, and an inordinate proportion of what there is seems to be French for some strange reason.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

And what about the Boccherini piano quintets [ "per forte-piano, 2 violini, viola, e violoncello" ] op 56 and op 57 of 1797 and 1798/99 -

- you're a genius, vinty - I knew nothing of these works: they'll do for me!

[rauschwerk]

Schubert's lineup was used earlier by Hummel, though why he chose to write for strings in E flat minor is anybody's guess!