French Piano Quintets

[EdwardHan]

I'm now working on an essay on French piano quintets, and I'll be quite happy to hear any ideas of such works, especially for the unsung masterpieces like Castillon or Florent Schmitt's!

[petershott@btinternet.com]

An essay on French piano quintets that didn't give pride of place to Franck would, in my view, be seriously defective!

[mjkFendrich]

As member of this forum you will surely be aware that there are lots of French piano quintets,
quite many of them are really worth of listening more then once!

One of my personal favourites is that of Pierné, but don't miss the works of e.g.
  Vierne, Cras, Le Flem, Koechlin, Durosoir.

[X. Trapnel]

Pride of place to the Franck quintet? Peut-être. Myself, I'd go for the two Faure masterpieces.

Jean Huré has a very fine piano quintet

[Arbuckle]

Louise Farrenc has 2 pf Quintets that are strong and beautiful.

[giles.enders]

I hope this list is of some help: 

George Alary
Charles-V Alkan
Henry Barraud,
Albert Bertelin
Adolph Biarent
Charles Boisdeferre
Francis Bousquet
Andre Caplet
Alexis de Castillon
Pierre Cettier
Henri Collet
Jean Cras
Henri Dallier
Camille Chevillard
Madeleine Dedien-Peters
Yvone Desvortes
Edouard Destenay
Theodore Dubois
Paul Dupin
Lucien Durosoir
Gabriel Dupont
Louise Farrenc
Gabriel Faure
Paul Fievet
Reynaldo Hahn
Ferdinand Herold
Jean Hure
Vincent d'Indy
Desire Inghelbrecht
Friedrich Kalkbrenner (German/French)
Rudolph Kreutzer
Mariel Labey
Charles Koechlin
Louis Lacombe
Paul Ladmirault
Edouard Lalo
Charles Lefebure
Paul Le Flem
Rene Lenormand
Guy de Lioncourt
Alberic Magnard
George Migot
Darius Milhaud
George Onslow
Georges Pfeiffer
Nicole Philiba
Michel Philippot
Gabriel Pierne
Armande de Polignac
Amadee Rasetti
Emil Ratez
Henri-Jean Rigel
Dane Rudhyar
Jeanne Rueff
Camille Saint-Saens
Florent Schmitt
Deodat de Severac
Richelot Simia
Louis Vierne
Paul de Wailly
Charles Widor

[mjkFendrich]

Giles,

thanks for that great list of French piano quintets. A favourite topic for my collection (the first rank is occupied by violin concertos)
are piano quintets - I didn't know that there are still so many works I haven't got yet 

[giles.enders]

I have a list of over 1,000 piano quintets, never got round to doing a web site for them. I had planned to follow on from my piano concerto one.  My interest started by being frustrated by how many venues could not accommodate an orchestra not to mention afford an orchestra.  Piano quintets seemed the next best thing and they are greatly underrated.
How about doing a violin concerto site, you will be surprised by the amount of interest it will generate.

[petershott@btinternet.com]

A splendid list, Giles, which has set the head spinning and the hands reaching out for reference books. Thank you for it.

I remain unrepentant about proposing Franck as one of the greatest 19th century French piano quintets - and it doesn't appear on your list. Perhaps you count Franck as Belgian?

[giles.enders]

I did count him as Belgian and there are a few more Belgians if you are interested.

[ahinton]

I hope this list is of some help:


...

Que votre liste est formidable! There are quite a few there that I don't know there - and if any turn out to be anything like as fine as the Schmitt, we'll be in for quite a treasure-trove indeed! Speaking of the Schmitt, I suppose the principal reasons for the rarity of performances is its sheer scale and difficulty, yet I'd question just how much harder or lengthier it is than the great Brahms Op. 34 which gets plenty of (well-deserved) outings.

[JimL]

Alkan composed a QUINTET  I've heard the Trio, but I've never seen a quintet listed anywhere.

[ahinton]

Alkan composed a QUINTET  I've heard the Trio, but I've never seen a quintet listed anywhere.

I meant to respond about this earlier and then forgot! I've never seen or heard of it either. The nearest to it might be the second Concerto da Camera in its version with solo strings but this involves a double bass.

[giles.enders]

The Belgians !

Alexandre Artot
Jan Blockx
Auguste Dupont
Cesar Franck
Armande Freson
Leon Jongen
Desire Paque
Froncoise Rasse
Joseph Ryelandt
Daniel Schroyens

[petershott@btinternet.com]

Many thanks, Giles.

I now feel very humble - since a quick look through the Belgian list tells me I know only 20% of these quintets! That appears awful, eh? And if the Franck was re-categorised as French (I always think of Franck as French since he lived, worked, and published in France), then it goes down to 10%.

Methinks I ought to go back to the Piano Quintet kindergarten.