Unknown descendants from a noble genre
Robert Schumann wrote his Piano Quintet in 1842. His wife Clara was supposed to be the pianist, but when she fell ill, Felix Mendelssohn took her place. This was a significant event. First of all, it was Schumann’s first chamber music work (aside from an experiment in his youth). Secondly, it turned out to be the first quintet for piano and string quartet to become famous (Mozart and Beethoven had only written quintets for piano and wind instruments). Schumann started a tradition that resulted in a handful of exquisite masterpieces: delicate in their conception, rich of sound and overflowing with interconnections.
End 2004, the French-Belgian Quatuor Danel joined forces with pianist Frank Peter to perform some quintets. They gave three concerts, consisting of six pieces, in two days. They skipped Schumann, as it has been played so often, and chose quintets from composers like Respighi, Franck, Medtner and Schnittke.
Yes, you’re not mistaken: Respighi. Ottorino Respighi, the composer of eternal love and – somewhat kitschy – orchestral pieces like Pini di Roma, also wrote chamber music that nobody seems to know exist. The Piano Quintet from Franck is a lot less obscure, but this isn’t performed often either.
Nikolai Medtner was unfortunate in being in between everything. Being a Russian that lived in between the period of The Five and the later experimental, innovative composers of the twentieth century, he was kind of in the middle. It wasn’t until the last few years that people discovered the unique voice that sounds from his (not so radical) music.
Finally, Alfred Schnittke, who is known by fans of Contemporary Music as the ‘man of a hundred styles’ (he was one of the first to use the term polystilistic). All kinds of different styles collide with each other in his works – old, modern, popular, anything – without the composer trying to create unity. It illustrates the chaos of modern time, and the nostalgia for the past. The theme of this quintet is no surprise therefor. Schnittke wrote it around the time his mother died; it doesn’t lack in sadness and nostalgic feelings towards the past.
Playlist
- Ottorino Respighi – Piano quintet in F minor
- César Franck – Piano quintet in F minor
- Nikolai Medtner – Piano quintet in C major
- Alfred Schnittke – Piano quintet
- Guillaume Leukeu – Adagio
Performing
Quatuor Danel
Frank Peters, piano (1-4)
