Piano Quintet in E-flat major, Op. 44

Schumann wrote this in a matter of weeks during his self-declared 'year of chamber music', and it was the work that essentially invented the piano quintet as a genre, pairing piano with string quartet in a way no one had done before with such ambition. The first movement opens with a bold, unison theme built on wide upward leaps, which soon gives way to a softer second theme introduced by cello and viola. The second movement is marked 'In modo d'una marcia' (in the manner of a march) and moves at a slow, processional tread in C minor, interrupted by a lyrical episode and then a more agitated one dominated by the piano.

What to listen for

The finale is a fusion of sonata and rondo forms that arrives at an astonishing coda: the opening theme from the first movement, with its leaping intervals, is suddenly brought back and woven together with the finale's own main theme in a double fugue, so both themes run simultaneously in counterpoint. It is also worth catching the scherzo's two trios: the first is a quiet lyrical canon passed between violin and viola, and the second abruptly switches to a heavily accented, almost manic dance in duple metre.

Recommended recording

The recording by Marc-André Hamelin and the Takács Quartet on Hyperion has been frequently cited for its combination of clarity and drive, and has been praised for revealing the imaginative resourcefulness of Schumann's writing.

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