It would make sense for a viola quintet to start with the violas—but no, Brahms has the cello dive in with a wild solo across most of its range, springing across strings and punctuating with rolled chords, all while the other instruments gleam together above.
While many composers might set out to write a piano quintet, for Brahms it was simply the best ensemble in which to house a musical idea.
Musica ricercata was written for the “bottom drawer”— Ligeti knew it could not be performed in Hungary behind the Iron Curtain. But for him alone, it was a new beginning, built from the most basic musical elements.
Beethoven was best known as a pianist, but he also played violin and viola, and this is his first published work for strings alone.
In 1772 Charles Burney visited Vienna and reported hearing “exquisite quartets by Haydn,” probably from Op. 20. The D-major quartet is richly colored, frequently inflecting into minor.
Haydn’s “The Bird” quartet sheds much of the drama and gloom of his middle period. Grace notes suggest the chirping birds of the nickname.
Debussy’s Syrinx is the piece that launched a thousand solo flute pieces. Its two-and-a-half minutes are evocative and filled with color.
Haydn developed a sideline writing for the growing commercial market. There was a lot of money in selling new works, or repackaging parts of old ones, like in these divertimentos.
Brahms’s Piano Trio No. 1 is a youthful work. But the piece we hear today was revised in 1889, 35 years later, at the pinnacle of his career.
The sharp opening of Beethoven’s first piano trio announced to the world that a new, important composer had arrived: it was this piece that he chose to publish as his Op. 1, No. 1.