Antonin Dvořák (1841-1904) Piano Quintet in A Major, Op. 81

Antonin Dvořák’s actually composed two piano quintets in A major.  The first dates from 1872 and is published as Op. 5 but the composer was so displeased with is that he burned its manuscript.  The parts were salvaged however, and 15 years later, Dvorak decided to revise it, but came up with a completely new work.  The Piano Quintet in A major Op. 81 was composed in 1887 and premiered in Prague the following year.  At the time, the composer was rising in fame, having recently returned from a successful residency in London, soon to be offered leadership at the Prague Conservatory (1889) and thereafter to embark on his famous trip to America (1892-1895).

Dvořák is known today for his ultra-romantic style and the championing of his native Czech music.  In recent years, however, musicologists and music analysts have concluded that his compositions are much closer in form and harmony to Germanic practice than any ethnic Bohemian style.  They claim that most folk music associations are a matter of perception from titles such as Dumka and the fact of Dvořák’s Czechness.  Yet Dvořák’s distinctive rhythmic vitality and tonal colorations cannot be denied, be they ethnic Czech in origin, or products of Dvořák’s muse.

The genre of Piano Quintet is the epitome of Romantic chamber music forms, introduced by Robert Schumann in 1842, and adopted by Johannes Brahms in 1864.  Dvořák’s contribution to the genre is perhaps the most beloved, full of lovable melodies and extremely dramatic twists and turns.  It begins with an intimate moment for piano and cello, rudely interrupted by and almost orchestral intrusion by the rest of the ensemble.  After a brief sonic storm, the violin picks up on the cello’s original melody, this time way up in the stratosphere, with the rest of the ensemble gently accompanying below.  The movement’s melancholy second theme is introduced by the viola in the distant key of C-sharp minor.  The development is of epic proportions traveling to keys as distant as A-flat minor.  A grand allargando section is a stirring highlight in the latter half of the movement, maxing out on volume and passion. 

The second movement hardly allows the listeners and performers to catch their breath, alternating mournful laments with bittersweet dances.  Dvorak borrowed the opening piano motive of this movement in his Op. 83 “Love Songs”, “V té sladké moci očí tvých.”  The all-consuming emotion of the song’s text can give us a clue as to Dvořák’s intended subject matter:

I would gladly, gladly perish
By the sweet power of your eyes,
If your beautiful smile did not
Bring me back to life. 

I would always happily choose that sweet death
With this love, this love in my breast:
But only if I knew that your sweet lips
Would wake me from my rest.

(Translation by Hannah Sharene Penn)

The third movement may be slightly lighter in subject but the piano part especially demands extreme agility from the piano.  The last movement, as one would expect raises a furious storm once again to round of this enormous work symmetrically.

© Beeri Moalem