Piano Quintet in A minor Op.84 (1918–19)

Elgar specialists have spent much time and energy attempting to identify exactly which clump of trees near Brinkwells – the Sussex country cottage where the composer found refuge in 1917 and 1918 – was the one that inspired the Piano Quintet in A minor. Faced with the problem of reconciling the allegedly sinister influence of withered trees in Bedham Copse with suggestions of Spanish music here and there in the first movement, they have come up with a variety of ingenious ideas. “Were there not Spanish chestnuts in the area?” one of them asks. Speculation on those lines might be very interesting but it is certainly a distraction from the appreciation of a work remarkable less for its programmatic content, if any, than for the extraordinary spontaneity of its musical impulse.

It is true that the opening Moderato, beginning with quietly shuddering string figures set against a melodic line sustained in octaves on the piano, has something “sinister” about it. But the point of the Moderato introduction, including also an expressive little passage for cello and the other strings, is that it is the source of just about all the material of a work that is liberated from sinister implications at a fairly early stage. In spite of the reminders of the Moderato that recur during the main Allegro section and at the end, the first movement as a whole is an abundantly inventive, stylistically uninhibited and dynamically articulated series of variations on either the shuddering string figures or the sustained piano line from the introduction.

The source of the lovely main theme of the Adagio, introduced in E major by the viola in the opening bars, is the expressive little passage for cello and strings from the Moderato, the one introductory item of melodic potential that was not developed in the Allegro. The second theme, which motivates the passionate central climax, is another variant on the piano line. That passage for cello and strings also introduces the last movement which, on the change of tempo, turns out to be a lively sonata-form Allegro in A major based on yet another variant of the piano line. The mysterious, though scarcely sinister, recall of the Moderato introduction in the middle enhances rather than subverts the general exuberance.

Elgar specialists who cherish a particular affection for the music written at Brinkwells – the Sussex country cottage where the composer found refuge in 1917 and 1918 – have spent much time and energy attempting to identify exactly which nearby clump of trees was the one that inspired the Piano Quintet in A minor. Faced with the problem of reconciling the allegedly sinister influence of withered trees in Bedham Copse with suggestions of Spanish music here and there in the first movement, they have come up with a variety of ingenious ideas. “Were there not Spanish chestnuts in the area?” one of them asks. Speculation on those lines might be very interesting but it is certainly a distraction from the appreciation of a work remarkable less for its programmatic content, if any, than for the extraordinary spontaneity of its musical impulse.

It is true that the opening Moderato, beginning with quietly shuddering string figures set against a melodic line sustained in octaves on the piano, has something “sinister” about it. But the point of the Moderato introduction, including also an expressive little passage for cello and the other strings, is that it is the source of just about all the material of a work that is liberated from sinister implications at a fairly early stage. In spite of the reminders of the Moderato that recur during the main Allegro section and at the end, the first movement as a whole is an abundantly inventive, stylistically uninhibited and dynamically articulated series of variations on either the shuddering string figures or the sustained piano line from the introduction.

The source of the lovely main theme of the Adagio, introduced in E major by the viola in the opening bars, is the expressive little passage for cello and strings from the Moderato, the one introductory item of melodic potential that was not developed in the Allegro. The second theme, which motivates the passionate central climax, is another variant on the piano line. That passage for cello and strings also introduces the last movement which, on the change of tempo, turns out to be a lively sonata-form Allegro in A major based on yet another variant of the piano line. The mysterious, though scarcely sinister, recall of the Moderato introduction in the middle enhances rather than subverts the general exuberance.

Elgar specialists who cherish a particular affection for the music written at Brinkwells – the Sussex country cottage where the composer found refuge in 1917 and 1918 – have spent much time and energy attempting to identify exactly which nearby clump of trees was the one that inspired the Piano Quintet in A minor. “Wonderful weird beginning,” wrote the composer’s wife in her diary, “…evidently reminiscence of sinister trees and impressions of Flexham Park.” Faced with the problem of reconciling the influence of withered trees in Bedham Copse with suggestions of Spanish music here and there in the first movement, they have come up with a variety of ingenious ideas. “Were there not Spanish chestnuts in the area?” one of them asks. Speculation on those lines might be very interesting but it is certainly a distraction from the appreciation of a work remarkable less for its programmatic content, if any, than for the extraordinary spontaneity of its musical impulse.

It is true that the opening Moderato, beginning with quietly shuddering string figures set against a melodic line sustained in octaves on the piano, has something “sinister” about it. But the point of the Moderato introduction, including also an expressive little passage for cello and the other strings, is that it is the source of just about all the material of a work that is liberated from sinister implications at a fairly early stage. In spite of the reminders of the Moderato that recur during the main Allegro section and at the end, the first movement as a whole is an abundantly inventive, stylistically uninhibited and dynamically articulated series of variations on either the shuddering string figures or the sustained piano line from the introduction.

The source of the lovely main theme of the Adagio, introduced in E major by the viola in the opening bars, is the expressive little passage for cello and strings from the Moderato, the one introductory item of melodic potential that was not developed in the Allegro. The second theme, which motivates the passionate central climax, is another variant on the piano line. That passage for cello and strings also introduces the last movement which, on the change of tempo, turns out to be a lively sonata-form Allegro in A major based on yet another variant of the piano line. The mysterious, though scarcely sinister, recall of the Moderato introduction in the middle enhances rather than subverts the general exuberance.