Piano Quintets

In its very first thematic series (released in the 1990s), eda records dedicated itself to presenting a total of six recordings in the piano quintet genre, many of which were the first to ever be recorded worldwide. The Finnish-German PIHITPUDAS KVINTETTI (Pihtipudas Piano Quintet), artistic partners of eda records in this project, is the only professional chamber ensemble to date which works exclusively in this line-up. In 2013, it celebrated the 25th anniversary of its founding. Since then, the renowned formation hasn’t just focused on the main pieces in its repertoire – far from it. Instead, it has dedicated much of its activity to unearthing a wide variety of little-known and forgotten works, thus enriching the piano quintet genre with its discoveries and recordings in a highly original manner. “What would Brahms say about that?” Herzogenberg asked in 1897. But Brahms held his tongue, has he had done since 1875, when the “New German” Herzogenberg, who had started out as a comrade-in-arms of Wagner and Liszt, suddenly became a Brahmsian. What it was exactly that moved Herzogenberg – a hopeful, oft-mentioned composer in certain circles – to change his position and condemn the New Germans from that point on remains unknown. What is known is that this new position more or less meant the end of his career, since there wasn’t all that much air left to breath in Brahms’ vicinity. In 1872, Herzogenberg moved to Leipzig of all places, the hotbed of musical conservatism, where he was effectively ignored. He could no longer make a living from composing there – and fell silent for three years. But he broke his silence in 1875 and returned to the public with his piano quintet in C-major (!). As with all his other works, he sent this one to Brahms as well – in vain. It wasn’t until it was too late that he found out that Brahms was displeased by nearly all of his scores. Nonetheless, the Herzogenberg family remained in touch with Brahms for life; Heinrich and his wife Elisabeth had the honour of being the first to see several of his most important works – but not the famous piano quintet: in this case, it was Clara Schumann and Joseph Joachim, who used clever criticism to cultivate it from its initial seed as a string quartet into a work for two pianos and finally into the piano quintet in its definite form. While many consider the Brahmsian work to be his greatest chamber music creation, Herzogenberg’s sister piece disappeared from the concert podiums for many years – unjustly, as attested by this rediscovery, with which eda records brought its series of piano quintets performed by Pihtipudas Kvintetti to a close.