Piano Quintet in G minor (Sibelius)

The Piano Quintet in G minor, JS 159, is a five-movement chamber piece for two violins, viola, cello, and piano written in 1890 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. When composing the piece, Sibelius replaced the original Movement IV (marked Vivace) with a scherzo (Vivacissimo); the earlier Vivace is extant.

History

Movements I and III of the Piano Quintet premiered in Helsinki on 5 May 1890 at the Music Institute (now the Sibelius Academy); the performers included the Norwegian composer Johan Halvorsen (violin) and the Italian composer Ferruccio Busoni (piano), as well as Karl Wasenius (violin), Josef Schwartz (viola), and Otto Hutschenreuter (cello). Movements II and IV had their premieres a half-year later on 11 October the first four movements were performed in Turku; among the soloists was Sibelius's close friend, the playwright Adolf Paul, who played piano, as well as Richard Hagel on first violin.

At neither of the two 1890 concerts was Movement V played. As a result, Sibelius rescued themes from the finale by reusing them for the Rondo in D minor (JS 162, 1893) for viola and piano duo, as well as the first of the Six Impromptus (Op. 5/1, 1893) for solo piano. In 1965, Movement V was played for the first time when the quintet in its entirety was premiered properly on 24 May at the Turku Concert Hall; the instrumentalists were as follows: Tuomas Haapanen (violin), Pekka Kari (violin), Mauri Pietikäinen (viola), Erkki Rautio (cello), and Liisa Pohjola (piano).

Structure

The G minor Quintet is in five movements, as follows:

The piece was published posthumously in 1993 by Edition Wilhelm Hansen.

Movement I

The first movement, marked Grave – Allegro, is in ³
₂ time; it has a duration of about 10 minutes.

Movement II

The second movement is an intermezzo; marked Moderato and in ⁴
₄ time, it has a duration of about 4.5 minutes.

Movement III

The third movement, marked Andante, is in ²
₄ time; it has a duration of about nine minutes.

Movement IV

The fourth movement is a scherzo; marked Vivacissimo and in ³
₄ time, it has a duration of about 3.5 minutes.

Movement V

The fifth movement begins Moderato in ⁴
₄ time before switching to ⁶
₈ for the Vivace. It has a duration of about 9.5 minutes.

Discography

The Finnish pianist Erik T. Tawaststjerna and the Sibelius Academy Quartet made the world premiere studio recording of the G minor Quintet for Finlandia in 1985. The table below lists this and other commercially available recordings:

Notes, references, and sources

Notes

References

Sources