Piano Quintet in E flat major, Op.44

Allegro brillante

In Modo d’una Marcia: un poco largamente

Scherzo: molto vivace

Allegro ma non troppo

Someone, sooner or later, was going to produce a major work for piano and string quartet. It was in 1842, in the apparent intention of consolidating his recent hard-won mastery of the string quartet and at the same time indulging himself in writing for the instrument he knew best, that Schumann became the first known composer to put the two together. His joy in the medium is evident from the start of the Allegro brillante with piano and strings all involved in the reckless melodic leaps and liberated harmonies of the first subject. The tenderly expressive second subject introduced by the cello in B flat major is no less authentic in texture. The slow-moving, dark-coloured descending phrase ominously reiterated at the beginning of the development section puts a temporary stop to the exuberance, which is recovered only at the beginning of the recapitulation.

The reason for the anxiety is revealed by the beginning of the slow movement, a serious-minded march in C minor with a halting melody carried exclusively for the strings. When the piano remembers the ominous descending phrase from the Allegro brillante it provokes another anxiety attack in the central agitato episode in F minor. The first episode is recapitulated in F major but the movement ends in the same funereal mood as it began. Mendelssohn, who played the piano part in a private performance of an early version of the work, advised Schumann not only to shorten the slow movement but also to replace an unsatisfactory second trio section in the Scherzo. Schumann agreed in both cases. The new second trio, a brilliantly scored Hungarian-dance oscillating dangerously between A flat minor and E major, is an inspiration like nothing else in his music.

The apparent dismissal in the Scherzo of the fears expressed in the first two movements is confirmed by the finale. While the E flat major orientation of the Allegro ma non troppo is not immediately obvious, the opening theme shares something of the exuberance of the main theme of the Allegro brillante, in spite of the minor harmonies applied to it at this stage.The climax of Schumann’s long-term structural strategy is an emphatically conclusive fugato masterfully combining the main theme of the first movement with the main theme of the finale as countersubject. There is still energy in reserve to celebrate the achievement in the coda.