Antonín Dvorák

In the early 1870s Antonín Dvorák wrote a Piano Quintet in A major that was published as Op. 5. Always dissatisfied with it, he attempted in 1887 to revise it for republication. Instead, he cast it aside and immediately set about composing a brand new piano quintet in the same key. This product, the Piano Quintet in A major, Op. 81 (now called No. 2, though Dvorák surely would not have liked to hear it called so), is a complete success and a central masterwork of Romantic-era chamber music. Written between August and early October of 1887, it is a work that now stands alongside the Brahms F minor Piano Quintet as one of the twin peaks of the repertoire written for piano and string quartet. The three legs of the Dvorák stylistic triad -- Brahmsian depth and warmth, Eastern European folk flavor, and sheer melodicism -- are held in perfect balance here.

The Piano Quintet, Op. 81 is in the traditional four movements (though the use of a schizophrenic dumka as the slow movement is more than a bit nontraditional): Allegro ma non tanto, Andante con moto (the dumka), Molto vivace (a scherzo), and Allegro. The cello introduces a famous melody atop a warm bed of the piano's arpeggiations at the start of the first movement; but barely a dozen bars go by before the music takes a jolting turn to the minor mode and shoots forth towards a rousing, fortissimo C major phrase (if only four bars are remembered by a listener while driving home from the concert, it will be these). A second theme area in C sharp minor provides the basis for a movement that falls essentially into the long tradition of sonata form.

The dumka was a Ukrainian lament or ballad that often contained several sections with contrasting moods; Dvorák incorporated dumky into several compositions. The dumka movement in this quintet is in F sharp minor. Its beautiful and introverted main theme is turned on its head first by a lighthearted D major interlude (Un pochettino più mosso) and then, after a reprise during which the viola plays the main tune in canon with the piano, by a fabulous Vivace during which a sprightly version of the main tune's first notes is tossed about between the players. The scherzo is called a "Furiant" in the score; at first it shows none of the metric alternations inherent in that particular Bohemian dance, but as the trio section unfolds Dvorák provides some nice three-against-four and two-against-threes rhythmic passages. The rondo finale starts with a burst of secco string eighth notes against rapid syncopation in the piano. The refrain theme thoroughly enjoys its time on center stage, hustling and bustling forward on folkish sixteenth notes.