Top 10 Favorite Quintets

[TheGSMoeller]

Any instrumentation, any combination, any era. 5 parts, thats all. 

Dowland Lachrimae
Mozart Clarinet Quintet in A, K 581
RVW Phantasy Quintet
Brahms String Quintet no.2, Op. 111
Schnittke Piano Quintet
Webern Piano Quintet
Prokofiev Quintet Op.39 (oboe, clarinet, violin, viola & double bass)
Koechlin Piano Quintet Op.80
Villa Lobos Quintet, W 583 (flute, violin, viola, cello & harp)
Elgar Piano Quintet Op. 84

[North Star]

Josquin Miserere mei, Deus
Dowland Lachrimae
Boccherini Guitar Quintet 'La ritirata di Madrid' in C major, G.453
Mozart String Quintet No. 4 in G minor, K. 516
Schubert String Quintet in C major, D. 956
Brahms String Quintet no.2, Op. 111
Brahms Piano Quintet, Op. 34
Dvorak Piano Quintet No. 2 in A major, Op. 81
Villa-Lobos Quinteto em forma de Chôros, for flute, oboe, cor anglais, clarinet & bassoon
Schoenberg Wind Quintet

[kyjo]

My list would be all piano quintets (in no particular order):

1. Schumann
2. Shostakovich
3. Dvorak 2
4. Faure (can't choose which one)
5. Bloch 1
6. Biarent
7. Vierne
8. Franck
9. Koechlin
10. Taneyev

Honorable mentions: Brahms, Dohnanyi 1, Bacewicz 1, Bax, Schmitt, Franz Schmidt (for piano left-hand), Martinu 2, Pejačević, Juon, Enescu

[Karl Henning]

My list would be all piano quintets

Why? What have you got against (e.g.) string quintets, clarinet quintets? . . .

[Karl Henning]

Nice lists, Greg & Karlo!

[dyn]

Schnittke Piano Quintet

Mozart String Quintet No. 4 in G minor, K. 516
Schubert String Quintet in C major, D. 956
Dvořák Piano Quintet No. 2 in A major, Op. 81

and, in no particular order:

Brahms - Clarinet Quintet
Tiensuu - Arsenic and Old Lace (for harpsichord and string quartet)
Medtner - Piano Quintet, op. posth.
Miles Davis - First Quintet
Feldman - Piano and String Quartet
Nielsen - Wind Quintet

there are possibly other pieces for 5 instruments i like just as much, but they're not coming to mind right now; this is just in the order i've thought of things.

[DavidW]

Why is this in the polling station with no poll?

Oh well this is yet another overly nebulous topic.

[Brian]

Miles Davis - First Quintet

Genius choice! Although my favorite album of theirs is still Kind of Blue, and that does have two guys on sax... I think Some Day My Prince Will Come does too... worth including for 1958 Miles though.

[Sergeant Rock]

Elgar Quintet for Piano and Strings A minor

Cras Quintet for Flute, Harp and Strings

Schmidt Quintet for Piano, Clarinet and Strings A major

or

Schmidt Quintet for Piano, Clarinet and Strings B flat

Herrmann Quintet for Clarinet and Strings "SOUVENIRS DE VOYAGE"

Hindemith Quintet for Clarinet and Strings

Diamond Quintet for Clarinet, 2 Violas and 2 Cellos

Bruckner Quintet for Strings F major

Nielsen Quintet for Winds

Furtwängler Quintet for Piano and Strings C major

Schmitt, Florent Quintet for Piano and Strings


Sarge

[Karl Henning]

Wuorinen, Piano Quintet

First or Second?  0:)

[Brian]

Of the works mentioned so far:

Schubert String Quintet in C major, D. 956
Dvorak Piano Quintet No. 2 in A major, Op. 81
Faure Piano Quintet No. 1
Nielsen - Wind Quintet
Cras Quintet for Flute, Harp and Strings
Schumann Piano Quintet

Plus:

Dvorak String Quintet Op. 77
Glazunov String Quintet
Shostakovich Piano Quintet
Weinberg Piano Quintet

Piano and strings: 5
Strings (two cellos): 2
Strings (with double bass): 1
Winds: 1
Mixed ensemble: 1

[kyjo]

Why? What have you got against (e.g.) string quintets, clarinet quintets? . . .

Oh, I don't have anything against other kinds of quintets, it's just that I am more drawn the sound of a piano quintet than to any other chamber grouping. Also, more works have been written for this medium than string or clarinet quintets. That said, I like a good deal of string quintets: Schubert, Dvorak op. 97, Glazunov, Bruckner and a couple others, but none of these would necessarily make it into my top 10 quintets. Some other quintets that I like include Bax's Quintet for Harp and Strings and Quintet for Oboe and Strings, as well as Reger's and Brahms' Clarinet Quintets. But, again, none of these would make it into my top 10, admire them though I do.

[kyjo]

Elgar Quintet for Piano and Strings A minor

Cras Quintet for Flute, Harp and Strings

Schmidt Quintet for Piano, Clarinet and Strings A major

or

Schmidt Quintet for Piano, Clarinet and Strings B flat

Herrmann Quintet for Clarinet and Strings "SOUVENIRS DE VOYAGE"

Hindemith Quintet for Clarinet and Strings

Diamond Quintet for Clarinet, 2 Violas and 2 Cellos

Bruckner Quintet for Strings F major

Nielsen Quintet for Winds

Furtwängler Quintet for Piano and Strings C major

Schmitt, Florent Quintet for Piano and Strings


Sarge

Very nice list, Sarge! I remember the Cras being a gorgeous work (all his works are gorgeous, really); I'll have to revisit it. We both listed the Schmitt and Schmidt PQs, and that's no coincidence, as they're splendid works.

[Daverz]

Reicha

[Sergeant Rock]

Reicha

Agree. But which of the 265 Wind Quintets would you choose? 

Sarge

[Daverz]

Agree. But which of the 265 Wind Quintets would you choose? 

Eeny, meeny, miney, mo...

Bliss always follows.

[Brian]

Dvorak op. 97

I wonder if I'm the only person who would rather have Dvorak's quintet op. 77 over op. 97?

[kyjo]

I wonder if I'm the only person who would rather have Dvorak's quintet op. 77 over op. 97?

Actually, now that I think about it, they're equally great! They're pretty underrated (by Dvorak standards, of course) and contain a wealth of melodic invention and exude a life-affirming atmosphere. My preferred recordings of the String Quintets are on Naxos:

[asin]B00006GO44[/asin]   [asin]B000050WO8[/asin]

[IfULikeMyPeruqPlizTellMe]

Florent Schmitt Piano Quintet
Brahms Clarinet Quintet
Mozart Clarinet Quintet
Nielsen Wind Quintet
Fauré both Piano Quintet
Mozart String Quintets (difficult to choose)
Schubert String Quintet D. 956
Dvorak Piano Quintet, Op. 81
György Ligeti Bagatelles for Wind Quintet
And a lot of others...

[Ken B]

Josquin, Nymphes des Bois (aka Deploaration ... )

There is such much 5 voice polyphonic stuff. Let that represent many choices.

Mozart's piano and wind quintet has to make the list.
Schubert's big string quintet (not the trout!) in C
The Dvorak piano quintet. 
One of the Brahms string quintets, probably 2, but maybe both.
A recent fave is Rota's flute quintet, but too soon to assess its staying power.