Natchez Festival Of Music

7:00 P.M. - The Art Of The Piano Quintet

Johannes Brahms - Piano Quintet in F Minor, Op. 34
Robert Schumann - Piano Quintet in E-flat Major, Op. 44

Schumann's Piano Quintet in E-flat Major, Op. 44, is both his most frequently performed chamber composition and the pioneering quintet for piano and string quartet, made possible by the improvement in pianos.  It inspired other great works for the combination, including ones by Brahms, Franck, Faure, Dvorak and Shostakovich.  Composed in 1842, a gloriously productive year for his chamber music, it was dedicated to his wife Clara.

The Brahms Piano Quintet in F Minor, Op. 34 is considered the greatest work for its instrumentation, but it underwent some major changes before emerging in its final form.  Brahms first composed it for a string quintet, with two cellos.  When that proved unsatisfactory, he reworked it as a two-piano sonata, which is still performed as an alternate version.  But on the advice of his friend Clara Schumann, he revised it again as a piano quintet and it was premiered in 1866.

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