Piano Quintets

[Scarpia]

For the interested, there's this disc:



Interestingly enough, the Quintet is op 1.

One disc for $28 on Amazon.com.   

[The new erato]

One disc for $28 on Amazon.com.   

£ 13 or thereabouts on mdt, an expensive label for sure, and never on sale...

[snyprrr]

For the interested, there's this disc:



Interestingly enough, the Quintet is op 1.

It's funny. The guy wants to be a composer, but waits three years before he dies to start writing!

I can't believe it's only available on this small label. Very expensive

[snyprrr]

I'd like to lift up the PQ by Franz Reizenstein, a Composer known for a few Hammer Horror scores. It just hit my ears as having just that little bit more than normal,... not too much here, not too little there, just a very well, and nicely, put together piece.

I feel like I'm reaching a sort of end to the PQ repertoire, and I'm starting to get a Summing Up feeling. There are a lot of features here, and an unusual amount of Masterpieces. I have been immeasurably enriched over the last year of studying the PQ, and feel I have have the MountainTopExperience. Hopefully I'll get it together for a Post.

Just as a Test, here's a Top10 (NO ORDER):

1) Furtwangler/ Rubinstein
2) Medtner
3) Biarent/ Dupont Poeme
4) Elgar
5) Castillon
6) Bloch No.1
7) Witkowski
Vierne
9) Faure 1-2
0) Xenakis Akea

Hmmm,... looks like only a Top20 will do. I'll be back.

[snyprrr]

One thing I've noticed about the 'lesser' angels in the PQ Heaven is how the mechanics of Sonata Form can annoyingly be on display: endless modulating on fragments of the Theme, endless climaxes,... you know, all the typical stuff that can make Classical Music so tiresome. When I've heard practically the same passage in I don't know hoooow many pieces, I'm just like, Get Over It Already, haha!!

I'm reminded of a scene in this old '70s movie on Tchaikovsky, where he is playing the intro to his Piano Concerto for (I assume) Rubinstein, who, after a moment, says, Now, Modulate,... you MUST Modulate,... and Tchaikovsky dramatically rebuts him, I can do it MY way!! Oh, yes, it's quite poofy!

Anyhow, lots and lots of modulatin' goin' on here, haha! Maybe what makes a Masterpiece is how well a Composer covers up all this dreary academicism.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

Just as a Test, here's a Top10 (NO ORDER):

1) Furtwangler/ Rubinstein
2) Medtner
3) Biarent/ Dupont Poeme
4) Elgar
5) Castillon
6) Bloch No.1
7) Witkowski
Vierne
9) Faure 1-2
0) Xenakis Akea

Wow Snip, you didn't include the usual suspects (Brahms, Dvorak, Schumann, Shostakovich), or some of the not-quite-so-usual ones (Martinu, Schnittke). The only ones I know on your list are Elgar and Xenakis (now there's a contrasting pair!). An eccentric list indeed.

I'm reminded of a scene in this old '70s movie on Tchaikovsky, where he is playing the intro to his Piano Concerto for (I assume) Rubinstein, who, after a moment, says, Now, Modulate,... you MUST Modulate,... and Tchaikovsky dramatically rebuts him, I can do it MY way!! Oh, yes, it's quite poofy!

Funny, I saw that movie recently. It's a typical Soviet biopic. They don't go into the real reason why his marriage failed, and they also try to make out like he was some kind of "progressive" who saw the Revolution coming. But it's pretty entertaining on the whole.

[snyprrr]

Wow Snip, you didn't include the usual suspects (Brahms, Dvorak, Schumann, Shostakovich), or some of the not-quite-so-usual ones (Martinu, Schnittke). The only ones I know on your list are Elgar and Xenakis (now there's a contrasting pair!). An eccentric list indeed.


Funny, I saw that movie recently. It's a typical Soviet biopic. They don't go into the real reason why his marriage failed, and they also try to make out like he was some kind of "progressive" who saw the Revolution coming. But it's pretty entertaining on the whole.

That list certainly will break its bonds,... but that list was just to get the juices flowing!

[Kontrapunctus]

Let's not forget Hans Werner Henze's Quintet. I attended the US premiere--quite a dark and intense piece.

[snyprrr]

Let's not forget Hans Werner Henze's Quintet. I attended the US premiere--quite a dark and intense piece.

That cd, OOP, has piqued my interest,... on a Henze binge.

[snyprrr]

Made a determined effort with Wuorinen's PQ, and I find it quite a perfect Total Serial Work. The four mvmts. are very well contrasted. The slow mvmt. in particular had a spare beauty, and the finale is pretty wild. This work grew on me since my first listen.

[The new erato]

The slow mvmt. in particular had a spare beauty,

A beauty to spare! Please send her to me! I'm just happy you didn't spear her!

[Brian]

Just listened to Weinberg's Piano Quintet. Really haunting slow movement dividing strings against piano for the most part, and a finale with a lot of really surprising influences - I could hear jazz here and there, and even what seemed to be a Celtic folk tune paid a brief visit!

[The new erato]

Just listened to Weinberg's Piano Quintet. Really haunting slow movement dividing strings against piano for the most part, and a finale with a lot of really surprising influences - I could hear jazz here and there, and even what seemed to be a Celtic folk tune paid a brief visit!

Is that the Toccata issue?

[snyprrr]

Snyprrr,
beware of piano quintets

No, no,... there WILL be an end made of the PQ, haha!


I've been doing my HomeWork, and feel as though I'm coming around FullCircle, having finally heard that famous Domus recording. Even in the last few weeks I've uncovered a few new UltimateFavs, especially in the one by

oh no, I can't ruin the surprise , can I?


I am seeing how this particular configuration came into its own, somewhere between 190? and 1919, in a seeming PerfectMixture of French Impressionism and Germanic Late Romanticism. It is also interesting, because some Composers' music just doesn't translate well, and some of these misjudgments are pretty uniquely awful. Maybe the PQ, even more the the SQ, is the perfect litmus test for a Composer, because of the forced mixture of timbres and such? Plus, the full SQ adds a CinemaScope quality, if the Composer needs.


BY THE WAY[/size]

Has ANYONE noticed that boogie-woogie/Deep Purple bass line that starts off the Finale to Faure's No.2? PleasePLEASE tell me I'm not the only one who totally flipped out over this revelation?!?!?!

What disco song IS that???

[snyprrr]

On the Formal End to the Literature:
The Piano Quintets of Bacewicz and Ginastera

A treatise on the dislocation of

ok,...


In my madness, I have attempted to encapsulate an essence, the purity of essence If yOU will, of something as fire catching as the inspirations that I have found within the Masterpieces. But, must they come to an end?

The Piano Quintet flourished in a Romantic Impressionism, that, after the wars

I'm just soooo tired...

Both Ginastera's PQ (1962) and Bacewicz's No.2 (1965) exhibit the fragmentation that has occurred from post war dislocation. Bacewiicz utilizes all manner of Penderecki inspired sound effect, and much of Ginastera's actual quintet is given over to solos and duos. Both have moments of quiet evocation, with Ginastera bringing to life deep hidden jungle mysteries.

Both are also quite dissonant, the Ginastera hissingly so, as if the heat and humidity of the South American pampas is ready to snap and crackle like thorns under a pot. I found this pieces fragmentary treatment slightly disturbing, and unlikeable at first, but perhaps I can see Ginastera's worldly bitterness here.

Bacewicz's sound effects don't seem to carry meaning like in the Ginastera, but simply exist in the mix. I seem to recall Xenakis chiding the Poles because, on the one hand they made great sounds, but on the other hand, the organization aren't mathematical,...mmm, or something like that!

So,I think with the PQ in particular, because of the contrast of two opposing timbres being so unhelpful to the Modernist cause at the time, this combination of strings and piano died a fairly quiet death with Ginastera and Bacewicz. The only strains surviving into the '60s would be either the Hindemithaen NeoClassic with fourths harmonic language, or a more Schonbergaen approach. Alan Rawsthorne wrote a PQ in 1969 that one could probably lift up as a malnourished poster child of what the mighty Lion of Chamber Music had become, complete with a ninety second finale! I find it has a quaint, Hammer-like quality to it, haha!!

Now, I know the PQ didn't really totally die (Xenakis, Feldman, Wuorinen, Henze, Ades, etc.,...), but, really, for what it was, and what it did, it did die, probably somewhere between the wars. I haven't heard the Henze, but that would probably be my candidate for a continuation. I have heard the Ades on YouTube, and found it dreary, not the Modern Masterpiece that I personally would have wished for.

Wuorinen's is in Total Serialism mode, Feldman's is not really a PQ, but just Feldman, and the Xenakis is beautiful, yet a willful piece of Music. I really don't need to hear one from Golijov, or Rihm, or practically anyone Living that I can think of.

A PQ by Villa-Lobos, in full evocation mode, would have been nice!

[milk]

This was a really great thread. There is so much information here that has led me to seek out and acquire quite a few recordings.

[Karl Henning]

Made a determined effort with Wuorinen's PQ, and I find it quite a perfect Total Serial Work. The four mvmts. are very well contrasted. The slow mvmt. in particular had a spare beauty, and the finale is pretty wild. This work grew on me since my first listen.

Excellent.

Have you heard the Second, as well?

[Brian]

Is that the Toccata issue?

Wow, better late than never? I found the Weinberg piano quintet on a Hanssler CD with pianist Kirschnereit and a quartet the name of which I can't immediately remember. It's coupled with the Shostakovich.

[0spinboson]

Wow, better late than never? I found the Weinberg piano quintet on a Hanssler CD with pianist Kirschnereit and a quartet the name of which I can't immediately remember. It's coupled with the Shostakovich.

[asin]B004KDO2U2[/asin]

[The new erato]

Interesting username noobie!