Piano Quintet in F minor

The first performance of César Franck’s Piano Quintet in F minor, at the Société Nationale de Musique in Paris in January 1880, was the occasion of one of the most celebrated insults ever delivered by one composer to another. Camille Saint-Saëns, who was not only the pianist in that performance but also the dedicatee of the work, strode off the platform the moment he had played the last notes, pointedly leaving the score on the piano behind him. His opinion of what was actually the first Piano Quintet in the history of French music was all too clear.

As Franck recovered his score from a waste bin he must have wondered what his distinguished colleague had found so distasteful. Could it have been anything to do with an unfounded rumour of an affair between Franck and his highly attractive pupil Augusta Holmès, to whom Saint-Saëns had proposed marriage ten years earlier? Or were his objections professional rather than personal? But if Saint-Saëns failed to appreciate the bold juxtapositions of dramatic violin recitative and hesitant piano poetry in the slow introduction to the work, he should surely have admired the way those two motifs influence the course of the main Allegro. Perhaps he disliked the amorous sentiment of the melody marked tenoro ma con espressione which is quite unexpectedly interpolated by the piano and then reintroduced by first violin as a second subject. If so, he certainly wouldn’t have liked much of the rest of the work since that melody is valued above all others as a long-term structural motif.

That second-subject melody returns as the cyclic theme which links the second and third movements in a dramatic continuity with the first. Before it appears in the Lento, however, Franck first introduces another theme, a fanfare-like motif on the strings, which is to have a similar long-term function. The reappearance of the cyclic theme is carefully reserved until towards the end of an ecstatically expressive passage in the middle of the movement.

The F major tonality of the Allegro non troppo is not clear until the four strings introduce the maestoso first theme in unison. Associated with it, indirectly at first on lower strings and then in radiant octaves on the piano, is the fanfare theme from the Lento. But the big moment, structurally and emotionally, is the return of the cyclic theme from the first movement in F major – which consummation is confirmed and celebrated in a briskly conclusive coda.

Gerald Larner©

If anyone could have understood Franck’s Piano Quintet when it was written, and appreciated it for the great work it still is, it would have been Franz Liszt. Liszt had encouraged Franck forty years earlier, when the student composer showed him his three Trios Concertants, and Liszt more than anyone else influenced Franck’s harmonic style, structural principles and general way of musical thought. Franck dedicated his Piano Quintet not to Liszt, however, but to Saint-Saëns who, after taking part in the first performance with the Marsick Quartet in Paris in 1880, displayed his scorn for the work by striding off the platform on the last chord and leaving his score on the piano.

This impassioned, symphonic, even operatic work of chamber music could not have appealed to anyone as fastidious and with such a developed sense of the musical proprieties as Saint-Saëns. Liszt, on the other hand, would surely have enjoyed the bold juxtaposition of a dramatic violin recitative in the opening bars with a piano passage of such poetry that he might almost have written himself. He would surely also have admired the way those two motifs, introduced Molto moderato quasi lento, influence the course of the main Allegro and even recur in (or near) their original tempo.

The first theme of the Allegro is clearly derived from the violin recitative. Another, more lyrical first-subject melody, introduced by the viola in F minor, clearly is not. But what of the melody, marked tenoro ma con espressione, which is quite unexpectedly interpolated in C sharp major (or, enharmonically, D flat major) by the piano and then reintroduced by first violin as a second subject in A flat major? It has no intervallic relationship with the piano motif in the introduction but, as later events demonstrate, Franck not only thinks of it in the same emotional terms but also values it above all others as a long-term structural motif. Recapitulated in F major, it is emphatically disabused of that happy illusion as the movement ends in an extraordinary expression of F minor ferocity.

That second-subject melody survives, however, as the cyclic theme which links the second and third movements in a dramatic continuity with the first. The Lento is in A minor and it is in that key that, as the even quaver rhythm in the piano part at the beginning gives way to semiquaver arpeggios, the second violin, viola and cello introduce a fanfare-like motif which is to have a similar long-term function. The reappearance of the cyclic theme from the Allegro is carefully reserved until towards the end of an ecstatically expressive passage in D flat major - a key of considerable significance in this work - in the middle of the movement.

The Allegro non troppo is in F major but that is not clear until, after much agitated preparation on the violins and broad melodic hints on the piano, the four strings introduce the maestoso first theme in unison. Associated with it, indirectly at first on lower strings and then in radiant octaves on the piano, is the fanfare theme from the Lento. But the big moment, structurally and emotionally, is the return of the cyclic theme from the first movement, first in D flat major on first violin and then, at last, in F major - which consummation is confirmed and celebrated in a briskly conclusive coda.

Gerald Larner©

The first performance of César Franck’s Piano Quintet in F minor, at the Société Nationale de Musique in Paris in January 1880, was the occasion of one of the most celebrated insults ever delivered by one composer to another. Camille Saint-Saëns, who was not only the pianist in that performance but also the distinguished dedicatee of the work, strode off the platform the moment he had played the last notes, pointedly leaving the score on the piano behind him. His opinion of what was actually the first Piano Quintet in the history of French music was all too clear.

Clearly, Saint-Saëns should not have accepted the dedication. He had encouraged Franck in his early days in Paris but by this stage in the Belgian composer’s career Saint-Saëns was convinced that his colleague’s influence was leading French music in entirely the wrong direction. When he first played through the Piano Quintet he must have realised immediately that this impassioned, symphonic, even operatic work of chamber music could only irritate any one with as fastidious a taste as his and with such a highly developed sense of the musical proprieties. He might also have suspected that the work was inspired by a rumoured affair between Franck and the highly desirable Irish-French musician Augusta Holmès, to whom Saint-Saëns had proposed marriage ten years earlier and who had very wisely turned him down.

Anyway, if Saint-Saëns did not appreciate the bold juxtapositions of dramatic violin recitative and hesitant piano poetry in the slow introduction to the work, Augusta presumably understood the message behind them. As a composer herself, she would surely also have admired the way those two motifs influence the course of the main Allegro and even recur in their original tempo. The first theme of the Allegro is clearly derived from the violin recitative. Another, more lyrical first-subject idea, introduced in F minor by the viola, clearly is not. Most expressive of all is the melody, marked tenoro ma con espressione, which is quite unexpectedly interpolated in C sharp major by the piano and then reintroduced by first violin as a second subject in A flat major. While it has no intervallic relationship with the piano motif in the introduction, Franck not only thinks of it in the same emotional terms but also, as later events demonstrate, values it above all others as a long-term structural motif. Recapitulated in F major, it is emphatically disabused of its happy illusions as the movement ends in an extraordinary expression of F minor ferocity.

That second-subject melody survives, however, as the cyclic theme which links the second and third movements in a dramatic continuity with the first. The Lento is in A minor and it is in that key that, as the even quaver rhythm in the piano part at the beginning gives way to semiquaver arpeggios, the second violin, viola and cello introduce a fanfare-like motif which is to have a similar long-term function. The reappearance of the cyclic theme from the Allegro is carefully reserved until towards the end of an ecstatically expressive passage in D flat major - a key of considerable significance in this work - in the middle of the movement.

The F major tonality of the Allegro non troppo is not clear until, after much agitated preparation on the violins and broad melodic hints on the piano, the four strings introduce the maestoso first theme in unison. Associated with it, indirectly at first on lower strings and then in radiant octaves on the piano, is the fanfare theme from the Lento. But the big moment, structurally and emotionally, is the return of the cyclic theme from the first movement, first in D flat major on first violin and then at last in F major - which consummation is confirmed and celebrated in a briskly conclusive coda.

Gerald Larner©