Piano Quintet in E-flat major, Op. 44

The opening bars hit all five instruments together in a bold unison, launching a theme built from wide upward leaps that will keep returning in new disguises across all four movements. The second movement is a slow funeral march in C minor, interrupted mid-course by an agitated episode dominated by the piano, before the march returns to close the movement firmly. Schumann dedicated the work to his wife Clara, who gave the public premiere at the Leipzig Gewandhaus in January 1843.

What to listen for

In the finale's closing pages, the piano hammers out the first movement's opening leaping theme in the right hand while the rest of the ensemble plays the finale's own main theme against it in a fugue, with two distinct subjects woven together simultaneously. It is a structural callback that ties the whole four-movement arc into a single argument. The Scherzo also rewards attention: its main material is a rushing scale slightly displaced from the beat, giving it a lopsided, propulsive energy.

Recommended rendition

The recording by Leif Ove Andsnes with the Artemis Quartet has been frequently cited for its balance between the piano's natural dominance and the string voices.

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