String Quintet in G major, Op.111

1 Allegro non troppo ma con brio 2Adagio 3 Un poco allegretto 4 Vivace ma no troppo presto

Given the choice between the Mozart and Schubert models, Brahms opted first for the string quintet with two cellos. But he couldn’t make it work and eventually found more congenial company in an ensemble centred on two violas. His concept of the medium was quite different from Mozart’s, however, the present Quintet in G major being more like a scaled-down orchestral serenade. While it is no less interesting or attractive for that, it does cause problems. Except in such places as the introduction of the lyrically waltzing second subject on two violas, the quintet texture in the first movement is swollen by restless tremolandos, double stops and surging arpeggios. In the Adagio the presentation of the expressive opening theme is intimate enough but with every variation its treatment becomes more and more elaborate until its culmination in a highly wrought climax. The last two movements are more modestly scored, particularly the Un poco allegretto intermezzo with its lithe waltz tune in G minor. The texture of the finale is certainly very busy at some points but, more often than not, it is because of the genuinely contrapuntal development applied to its spiritedly gypsy-style main theme.

Given the choice between the Mozart and Schubert models, Brahms opted first for the string quintet with two cellos. But he couldn’t make it work and, having had endless trouble with a projected F minor Quintet between 1862 and 1864, he eventually found more congenial company in an ensemble centred on two violas. His concept of the medium was quite different from Mozart’s, however. The Quintet in F major Op.88 is not so much an enriched quartet as a lean sextet. The Quintet in G major Op.111, which was written for Joseph Joachim in 1890 as a companion to the earlier work, is more like a scaled-down orchestral serenade.

While the Quintet in G is no less interesting or attractive for the serenade-like aspects of its scoring and content, they do cause problems - not least in the opening bars, where the cello has to project the jubilant main theme through the voluble excitement of the other four instruments. Except in such places as the introduction of the lyrically waltzing second subject on two violas, the quintet texture is swollen by restless tremolandos, double stops and surging arpeggios. Even the poetically coloured modulation at the beginning of the development is orchestral in effect. In the Adagio the presentation of the expressive opening theme is intimate enough but with every variation its treatment becomes more and more elaborate until it culminates in a highly wrought climax just before the quiet recall of the theme at the end.

The last two movements are more modestly scored, particularly the Un poco allegretto intermezzo with its lithe waltz tune in G minor and its sunny memory of Dvorak’s Bohemia in the G major middle section. The texture of the finale is certainly very busy at some points but, more often than not, it is because of the genuinely contrapuntal development applied to its spiritedly gypsy-style main theme as it proceeds towards a brilliantly contrived, accelerated ending.

When Brahms completed his Quintet in G major he declared it would be his last work. Then he heard Richard Mühlfeld playing clarinet in the Meiningen Orchestra and changed his mind.