Modern Piano Quintets?

[bennom]

What modern piano quintets have you played, heard or heard of?

The only one I can think of is Schnittke's.

Please add some to the list! (Preferrably with comments.)

bennom

[jre58591]

two that immediately come to mind are schnittke's and kapustin's. ive never really been a big fan of the schnittke, but the kapustin has always been one of my favorites. its just so unique and jazzy. you all should check it out sometime. id have to think a while to remember some other modern quintets.

EDIT: how could i forget? sorabji's 1st quintet. id have to listen to it a few more times to comment.

[ahinton]

EDIT: how could i forget? sorabji's 1st quintet. id have to listen to it a few more times to comment.

Which performance of it do you have? (none is yet commercially available). So far, only three ensembles have performed it in public; Christopher Berg and a group of freelance string players in New York in December 1998 (coincidentally on the same day and in the same city as one of the early performances of Elliott Carter's Piano Quintet [now there's one!]), Frank Peters and Quatour Danel in the Netherlands and Belgium in 2003 and Jean-Jacques Schmid and a freelance group of string players in Bern also in 2003.

Then, of course, there's Sorabji's Second Piano Quintet, but this has not yet been performed (and it's a really big one that occupies 432 pages in the ms. and 459 in the recent typeset edition) and is hardly "modern", of course, dating as it does from 1933.  Although it's also hardly "modern", let's not forget Ornstein's Piano Quintet of 1927 (which Marc-André Hamelin will be performing next year with the Arditti Quartet). Thomas Adès has written one. So has James Dillon (called "The Soadie Waste"). There must be plenty of others!

Best,

Alistair

[jre58591]

i have the performance with christopher berg. also, im curious. does the length of sorabji's 2nd quintet rival the length of feldman's 2nd string quartet (which i think is the longest chamber work to date)?

[ahinton]

i have the performance with christopher berg. also, im curious. does the length of sorabji's 2nd quintet rival the length of feldman's 2nd string quartet (which i think is the longest chamber work to date)?

In the absence of - and indeed until there has been - a performance of this work, I cannot say; I would hazard a guess that it's somewhere aound the three hour mark - which, for what that nugget of information may or may not in itself be worth, makes it (if correct) a whisker longer than my own string quintet (Altarus AIR-CD-9066[3]) which in turn is just a whisker or two longer than the Sonata for solo violin by Claude Loyola Allgen (1920-1990) as recently recorded by Ulf Wallin on BIS (BISCD1381-82 - a 3-CD set, as is my quintet). Comparison between the Feldman Second Quartet and any of these three other works (whose average length it exceeds by around 100%) should first sensibly bear in mind that the Feldman (an analysis of which may be found at https://www.cnvill.demon.co.uk/mfolsen_english.pdf)
occupies a mere 124 pages of score and is, like much of his work, diametrically different in approach to the other three in terms of treatement of material, development, dramatic and lyrical progress, movement from point to point and, in the end, intended eventful(less)ness.

Best,

Alistair

[bennom]

Just discovered that Thomas Ades has written a Piano Quintet!
Has anyone heard it/done it?

[ahinton]

Just discovered that Thomas Ades has written a Piano Quintet!
Has anyone heard it/done it?

I already mentioned it above - did you not notice?

Best,

Alistair

[pianistimo]

interesting about feldman's 'flux quartet version' that increases instead of decreases the time.  help!  i'm going insane.  also, i see the term minimalism takes on new meaning as it sort of blends with the idea of just writing in a certain number of repetitions of said motif, chords, etc.  gag.  i'm dying.  why don't they just say 'film score material.'  six HOURS?

do they want to see when people will actually get up and leave.  is this a sort of avant-gard way of psychologically analyzing concertgoers.  the ones to  immediately make faces and start acting wierd are normal and the ones that sit through it stone faced are the neanderthals.  bring an ipod - otherwise you will be hypnotized and kidnapped.

[bennom]

I already mentioned it above - did you not notice?

Best,

Alistair

Sorry! I just seem to have lost you in the middle of your Sorabji preaching...

Will read your posts more carefully in the future.

bennom

PS. Has anyone heard the Ades Quintet?

[ahinton]

Sorry! I just seem to have lost you in the middle of your Sorabji preaching...

I don't ever preach; there are in any case quite a few forum members of evident evangelistic bent who do this already, so I would be especially loath to add to their number even if otherwise motivated to do so (which I'm not). My intent was simply to provide some information about Sorabji's piano quintets and also to ask the person who'd heard the first one which performance he had listened to.

Best,

Alistair

[bennom]

Ok, until now, it adds up to five Piano Quintets written after WWII:

Schnittke
Kapustin
James Dillon
Thomas Adés
Elliot Carter

It's a good bunch, but, clearly, there must be more?

[ahinton]

Ok, until now, it adds up to five Piano Quintets written after WWII:

Schnittke
Kapustin
James Dillon
Thomas Adés
Elliot Carter

It's a good bunch, but, clearly, there must be more?

Medtner (it occupied him on and off from 1904-1949 but was at least completed post-WWII)
Stuart McRae
Vainberg (1944, so not quite)
Silvestrov
Feldman
Milhaud
Vic Hoyland
Rawsthorne

...over to someone else now...

Best,

Alistair

[mephisto]

Although it's also hardly "modern", let's not forget Ornstein's Piano Quintet of 1927 (which Marc-André Hamelin will be performing next year with the Arditti Quartet).
Best,

Alistair

YES!

[jre58591]

i actually just heard adès's piano quintet. it didnt strike me much at all, for it was very repetitive  and didnt seem to go anywhere.

ornstein's piano quintet is definitely a nice find. alistair, do you know when (or if) hamelin will be releasing a CD with the ornstein piano quintet? janice weber does a nice job, but i think hamelin would do a better one.

[ahinton]

ornstein's piano quintet is definitely a nice find. alistair, do you know when (or if) hamelin will be be releasing a CD with the ornstein piano quintet?

No. I know that he will be performing it once, next July, with the Arditti Quartet in the Cheltenham Festival in UK but I am not aware either of other planned performances of it by him/them, still less any recording plans.

Best,

Alistair

[jre58591]

what about korngold's piano quintet? would that qualify as modern, even though i sounds very romantic?

EDIT: forget the korngold. it was written in 1923 (ish) and i dotn think it can be counted due to its romanticism and earliness.

[iumonito]

1940, Shostakovich,
1962 or 63 (don't really remember) Ginastera,

Those two are pretty seminal works.  Faure's two quintets are from very early XXth century, so perhaps don't count.  Certainly not a la Ades.

[jre58591]

i just found out that charles wuorinen wrote a piano quintet. i hardly know what to expect of it, for i have only heard one work by wuorinen: the piano sonata. alistair, or anyone: any info?

[jre58591]

also, bohuslav martinů had two piano quintets. the first is from 1933 and the second is from 1944. i think theyd qualify for this thread. i havent heard either, so i cant comment further.

[minor9th]

Medtner (it occupied him on and off from 1904-1949 but was at least completed post-WWII)
Stuart McRae
Vainberg (1944, so not quite)
Silvestrov
Feldman
Milhaud
Vic Hoyland
Rawsthorne

...over to someone else now...

Best,

Alistair

Hans Werner Henze 1990...a very powerful piece.

[bennom]

i actually just heard adès's piano quintet. it didnt strike me much at all, for it was very repetitive  and didnt seem to go anywhere.

I've just listened to the Ades. I agree, it is repetitive, but the work is kind of interesting. It's like he took a small piece of Brahms, put in into a caleidoscope and keeps turning it for twenty minutes. Strange.