Schmitt: Piano Quintet in B minor, Op. 51 - Movement 3 by Florent Schmitt

The catalog of music written by French composer Florent Schmitt contains numerous chamber works. Among them are three large-scale compositions for string ensemble: a Trio, a Quartet, and the Piano Quintet, Op. 51. The Quintet was the first of these three pieces to be composed; Schmitt worked on the score for six years between 1902 and 1908.

It’s also the longest of the three works, totaling nearly an hour’s time. The outer two movements last over 20 minutes each, while the slow middle movement clocks in at around 14 minutes.

Schmitt dedicated this monumental chamber work to his teacher and mentor, Gabriel Fauré. the musicologist Michel Fleury considers the Quintet to be the “absolute apex” in the progression of piano quintets written by French composers from the time of César Franck and proceeding on to Vincent d’Indy, Camille Saint-Saens, Louis Vierne. Charles Koechlin, Gabriel Pierné and others.

Fleury has written this about the Piano Quintet: “Its luxuriant harmony, its rhythmic dynamism and its melodic profusion are very representative of the composer … The Quintet goes through all the nuances of feelings, from tenderness to the most savage violence, from nostalgia to the shores of despair, from voluptuousness to the most fanciful irony. It closes with an energetic and optimistic affirmation of volition, action — and Dionysian joy.”

Here is the third and final movement of the Piano Quintet -- "Animé" -- from a broadcast performance by the Music Group of London dating from the 1980s.