Antonín Dvořák - Piano Quintet No. 2, Op. 81

- Composer: Antonín Leopold Dvořák (8 September 1841 -- 1 May 1904)
- Performers: Andreas Haefliger (piano), Takács Quartet
- Year of recording: 1998

Piano Quintet No. 2 in A major, B. 155, Op. 81, written in 1887.

00:00 - I. Allegro, ma non tanto
13:31 - II(a). Dumka. Andante con moto -
22:41 - II(b). Un pochettino più mosso
27:45 - III. Scherzo (Furiant). Molto vivace - Trio. Poco tranquillo
31:53 - IV. Finale. Allegro

In the early 1870s Antonín Dvořák wrote a Piano Quintet in A major that was published as Op. 5 [uploaded in this channel]. Always dissatisfied with it, he attempted in 1887 to revise it for republication. Instead, he cast it aside and immediately set about composing a brand new piano quintet in the same key. This product, the Piano Quintet in A major, Op. 81 (now called No. 2, though Dvořák surely would not have liked to hear it called so), is a complete success and a central masterwork of Romantic-era chamber music. Written between August and early October of 1887, it is a work that now stands alongside the Brahms F minor Piano Quintet [uploaded on this channel] as one of the twin peaks of the repertoire written for piano and string quartet. The three legs of the Dvořák stylistic triad -- Brahmsian depth and warmth, Eastern European folk flavor, and sheer melodicism -- are held in perfect balance here.

The Piano Quintet is in the traditional four movements (though the use of a schizophrenic dumka as the slow movement is more than a bit nontraditional): Allegro ma non tanto, Andante con moto (the dumka), Molto vivace (a scherzo), and Allegro.

- The cello introduces a famous melody atop a warm bed of the piano's arpeggiations at the start of the first movement; but barely a dozen bars go by before the music takes a jolting turn to the minor mode and shoots forth towards a rousing, fortissimo C major phrase (if only four bars are remembered by a listener while driving home from the concert, it will be these). A second theme area in C sharp minor provides the basis for a movement that falls essentially into the long tradition of sonata form.
- The dumka was a Ukrainian lament or ballad that often contained several sections with contrasting moods; Dvořák incorporated dumky into several compositions. The dumka movement in this quintet is in F sharp minor. Its beautiful and introverted main theme is turned on its head first by a lighthearted D major interlude (Un pochettino più mosso) and then, after a reprise during which the viola plays the main tune in canon with the piano, by a fabulous Vivace during which a sprightly version of the main tune's first notes is tossed about between the players.
- The scherzo is called a "Furiant" in the score; at first it shows none of the metric alternations inherent in that particular Bohemian dance, but as the trio section unfolds Dvořák provides some nice three-against-four and two-against-threes rhythmic passages.
- The rondo finale starts with a burst of secco string eighth notes against rapid syncopation in the piano. The refrain theme thoroughly enjoys its time on center stage, hustling and bustling forward on folkish sixteenth notes.

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