Quintet Es dur [antikvár]

Schumann, Piano Quintet. In the years after 1840 Schumann entered one of the happiest periods of his life. After many difficulties and much unpleasantness he had at long last married Clara Wieck, and for the first time his success in the symphonic field was undeniable. Also his connection with Mendelssohn and other leading musicians of his time, as well as the "Zeitschrift für Musik", which he had founded himself, had given him an accepted standing. All these outer circumstances stimulated his creative genius, and for the first time he turned his attention to chamber music. The first products of the year 1842 were the three string quartets op. 41, which were to remain the only string quartets Schumann ever wrote. Immediately afterwards he set to work on the combination of pianoforte and string quartet, a combination which up to that time was completely unknown. It is amazing that this undoubtedly daring experiment has led to a great work which has given Schumann fame and popularity like few of his other compositions. Almost all later composers of chamber music (Brahms, Franck, Dvorak, Reger, etc.) have imitated Schumann's op. 44 and made use of the same instrumentation. The Piano Quintet was completed in October, 1842, and received its first performance in Schumann's house in November, with Clara Schumann at the piano and the Gewandhaus Quartet of that time, led by Ferd. David. A further performance took place in another private home on 8th December. As Clara Schumann fell ill shortly before that date, Mendelssohn took her place and sight-read the difficult work. On his advice Schumann replaced the original middle section of the second movement (in A flat) by the present f minor episode, and also composed the second Trio to the Scherzo (which, in the MS., is only found in the appendix). The first publ'c performance took place in the Gewandhaus on 8th January, 1843, this time again with Clara. The success was such that the work had to be repeated on 9th February. In the same year it was published by Breitkopf & Härtel. Max Alberti