From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A piano quintet is a chamber musical ensemble made up of one piano and four other instruments, or the name of a piece written for such a group.

The most common grouping is one piano, two violins, a viola, and a cello—that is, a piano with a string quartet. This combination of instruments is sufficiently prevalent in classical music that when the phrase piano quintet is used without qualification, it usually refers to this particular group.

Several composers have written piano quintets, although few have written more than one, a rare exception being Gabriel Fauré, who wrote two. Other composers to have written for the usual grouping of a string quartet plus piano include Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, Antonín Dvořák (who also wrote more than one, though only the second is played with any regularity), and Dmitri Shostakovich. Franz Schubert's famous Trout Quintet is written for the less usual combination of piano, violin, viola, cello, and double bass.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven both wrote pieces for a piano and four wind instruments (oboe, clarinet, horn, and bassoon in both cases). Although these pieces could be called piano quintets, they are more often referred to as "quintets for piano and wind" so as to distinguish them from pieces with the more usual instrumentation.

The following is a partial list of piano quintets by famous composers. All works are for piano and string quartet unless otherwise noted.

• Elfrida Andrée
  • Piano Quintet in E minor (1865)
• Anton Arensky
  • Piano Quintet in D major, Op. 51 (1900) ([1])
• Béla Bartók
  • Piano Quintet (1904)
• Arnold Bax
  • Piano Quintet in G minor (1915)
• Amy Beach
  • Piano Quintet
• Ludwig van Beethoven
  • Piano Quintet (for piano, oboe, clarinet, horn, and bassoon; 1796)
• Johannes Brahms
  • Piano Quintet (1864)
• Frank Bridge
  • Piano Quintet in D minor (1905 revised in 1912) ([2])
• Ernő Dohnányi
  • Piano Quintet No. 1 (1895)
  • Piano Quintet No. 2 (1914)
• Antonín Dvořák
  • Piano Quintet No. 1, Op. 5 in A (1872)
  • Piano Quintet No. 2, Op. 81 in A (1887)
• Edward Elgar
  • Piano Quintet (1918)
• Louise Farrenc
  • Piano Quintet No. 1 in A minor, Op. 49
  • Piano Quintet No. 2 in E major, Op. 50 (both with double bass)
• Gabriel Fauré
  • Piano Quintet No. 1, Op. 89 (completed 1905)
  • Piano Quintet No. 2, Op. 115 (completed 1921)
• César Franck
  • Piano Quintet (1879)
• Wilhelm Furtwängler
  • Piano Quintet in C (completed 1935) ([3])
• Hermann Goetz
  • Piano Quintet in C minor Op. 16 (1874)
• Otar Gordeli
  • Piano Quintet (1950)
• Sofia Gubaidulina
  • Piano Quintet (1957)
• Reynaldo Hahn
  • Piano Quintet in F-sharp minor (1921)
• Johann Nepomuk Hummel
  • Piano Quintet in E flat minor, Op. 87 (for piano, violin, viola, cello, and double bass)
• Vincent d'Indy
  • Piano Quintet in G minor, Op. 81 (1924)
• Nikolai Medtner
  • Piano Quintet in C major (begun 1903, finished 1949)
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
  • Piano Quintet, K. 452 (for piano, oboe, clarinet, horn and, bassoon; 1784)
• Leo Ornstein
  • Piano Quintet (1927)
• Max Reger
  • Piano Quintet No. 1 in C minor (1897-8)
  • Piano Quintet No. 2 in C minor Op. 64 (1901-2)
• Carl Reinecke
  • Piano Quintet in A major, Op. 83 (by 1865)
• Anton Rubinstein
  • Piano Quintet in G minor, Op. 99 (1876?)
• Camille Saint-Saëns
  • Piano Quintet in A minor, op. 14 (1855)
• Franz Schmidt
  • Piano Quintet (left-hand) in G major (1926)
• Florent Schmitt
  • Piano Quintet in B minor (1908)
• Alfred Schnittke
  • Piano Quintet (1976)
• Franz Schubert
  • Trout Quintet (for piano, violin, viola, cello, and double bass; 1819)
• Robert Schumann
  • Piano Quintet (1842)
• Dmitri Shostakovich
  • Piano Quintet (1940)
• Sergei Taneyev
  • Piano Quintet in G minor, Op. 30 (1911)
• Louis Vierne
  • Piano Quintet in C minor, Op. 42 (1917)
• Anton Webern
  • Piano Quintet (1907)
• Charles-Marie Widor
  • Piano Quintet no. 1 opus 7 (1881?)
  • Piano Quintet no. 2 opus 68 (1896)