Quintet in B flat major

When Rimksy-Korsakov wrote that the first movement of his Quintet for piano and wind “is in the classical style of Beethoven” he was revealing less than the whole truth. It is not so much the style of the movement that derives from Beethoven as the material itself. The opening theme on bassoon echoes that of the first movement of Beethoven’s “Archduke” Piano Trio; the clarinet’s immediate reply to it is based on a phrase from the first movement of the Ninth Symphony; and the chorale-like second subject, which is approached by a fairly extensive development of those first two themes, carries a hint of the great choral melody in the last movement of the same symphony.

Bearing that in mind, the composer should not have been surprised that the Quintet failed to win any kind of favourable comment when he submitted it to a Russian Music Society competition soon after he had completed it in 1876. Although he blamed its failure on the pianist, the jury could scarcely have failed to notice the Beethoven allusions even in this cheerful context and, whether they were deliberately made or not, to disqualify the work on those grounds. Still, the fugal episode in the middle of the second movement is, as Rimsky said, “pretty good” and it is skilfully integrated with the lyrical and distinctively Russian outer sections. There is another fugal passage, for piano alone, in the middle of the last movement, although Rimsky was evidently less proud of that than the allusive cadenzas - for horn, flute, clarinet and piano - that precede the last full-scale appearance of the rondo theme and the progressively quicker coda. If there had been a prize at the Russian Music Society for catchy tunes and witty instrumentation Rimsky would surely have won it with this delightful Rondo.

Gerald Larner©