Schumann's Piano Quintet proved extraordinarily influential. Historically, piano quintets first appeared in the 1770s, encompassing a wide variety of scoring. J.C. Bach wrote one that included oboe and viola da gamba, and another with oboe and flute. Giardini used no viola but a double bass instead. Mozart and Beethoven employed a woodwind quartet with piano for their only piano quintets. Schubert's only work included double bass, and Mendelssohn wrote piano quartets instead of quintets. It remained, however, for Schumann (1842) and Brahms (1864) to establish the definitive scoring and four-movement cycle that became the model for later composers. In addition, the quintet held great personal significance for Schumann. By 1840 Europe still knew him more as a gifted critic than a composer. The back-to-back triumphs of his first symphony (1841) and the quintet finally established his international reputation as a composer. During his most productive periods, Robert Schumann frequently composed clusters of works of a single musical type. In his "chamber music years" (1842-43), for example, Schumann wrote all of his string quartets and several works for piano and strings. His two works for piano and strings required only five days to sketch and another two weeks to complete. Both were written during October and November of 1843. In the first movement of his op. 44 quintet, Schumann presents three virile yet very warm themes. The development section concentrates on the first, striking theme. The recapitulation presents a modified re-working of all the material. The second movement is a study in contrasting characters. The opening theme is a funeral march after which a sweeter second theme comes as a release of tension before reverting back to the funeral march. The Agitato section flows back into the second theme, and the movement ends with a reprise of the first theme. Scales abound in the heavy Scherzo. The flowing first Trio section is a remarkable canon between the first violin and viola. The powerful second Trio is related only distantly to the Scherzo but has a concerto- like flair. The final movement is one of Schumann's most impressive with all the instruments involved in its conclusion.
-- Kendall Briggs