Top Unsung String Quintets

[John H White]

First of all, we are basically dealing with two subsets. (a)Those with two violas, as in the case of Mozart and Spohr (b) Double cello quintets, as churned out by the dozen by cellist composers such as Boccherini and Onslow. However, Onslow was so impressed with the result, when Dragonetti kindly volunteered to fill in for the missing 2nd cellist at one of his concerts, that thereafter he made his second cello parts optional for double base.
My top choices would be for subset (a) Mozart in C major and for subset (b) Schubert in C major tying with Franz Lachner in C minor. No doubt other more knowledgeable Forum members will be able to add more unsung string quintets to this list.

[eschiss1]

I wonder what ever became of Alfred Einstein's contention that Boccherini's "two-cello" quintets were actually misread two-viola quintets (this cropped up somewhere in his "Mozart: His Character, His Work") - that one of the cello parts was meant for tenor viola. Probably disproven by more recent musicology (his book is from the middle of last century), but seemed an interesting notion. Anyway.
My favorite undersung (pre-"Modern") 2-viola quintet - there's only one recording of it that I know of - is Joseph Rheinberger's (A minor, op. 82). (1874 - see http://www.editionsilvertrust.com/rheinberger-string-quintet.htm. Parts available at IMSLP, recording once available on Thorofon.) I think Altmann's description quoted by Mr. Silvertrust is pretty much on the mark, but I also think the work does have uncommon intensity and very high quality. I enjoy most of Rheinberger's chamber music, but this is my favorite work of his (as well as my favorite undersung quintet, unless I'm prodded by recollection of a better one . I'm omitting the better but also better-known Mozart and Brahms, of course...

I can't omit, however, the two string quintets of Felix Draeseke...(one for 2 violins, viola, violotta and cello, his "Stelzner-quintet"; one for 2-cello quintet - I have a recording on the AK Coburg label produced by the late Alan Krueck where they're both performed by 2-cello quintet. I know that there's a later recording on the same label of the violotta quintet played with a violotta, but I haven't heard it.)
I return to that CD very very often - two contrasting and most enjoyable quintets. I hope both works will be taken up by others. (I wonder what's happening to the AK Coburg label...)

[Delicious Manager]

What about that seemingly well-kept secret, Beethoven's String Quintet in C major Op 29? Written between the First and Second Symphonies, it's a lovely piece with a gorgeous slow movement.

I also love the Dvořák so-called 'double bass' quintet (string quartet plus bass) Op 77 - a piece that surely deserves to be programmed more often by chamber-music bass players looking for more repertoire to play.

Another work deserving of more exposure is the two-cello quintet in D major of 1898 by a truly unsung composer - Joseph Miroslav Weber (1854-1906)(no relation to the composer of Oberon). Fortunately, there is a superb recording of this piece, coupled with a reconstruction of the original string quintet version of Brahms F minor Op 34, by the Divertimenti Ensemble on Cello Classics.

[ahinton]

I also love the Dvořák so-called 'double bass' quintet (string quartet plus bass) Op 77 - a piece that surely deserves to be programmed more often by chamber-music bass players looking for more repertoire to play.

String quintets usually add a second cello to the string quartet or, in Mozart's and other cases, a second viola; those that complement that ensemble with a double bass are relatively rare, the Dvořák, however, being perhaps the best known example rather than the sole one...

[eschiss1]

I hear very good things about Heinrich Kaminski's string quintet in F-sharp minor (only recorded once, far as I know.)
Where double-bass quintets are concerned, there are a few 20th-century examples I'm aware of- Leslie Bassett and Vagn Holmboe - and the Dvorak. Others too I'm sure. (Meyer too probably.) Dvorak's other two string quintets (the first, op. 1 in a, only revived posthumously) don't get that much play either.
There are examples too by Gade (in e, viola?) and Glazunov (in A, cello) unsurprisingly (I like the Glazunov rather) and an early Borodin (cello, I think)...

[Delicious Manager]

String quintets usually add a second cello to the string quartet or, in Mozart's and other cases, a second viola; those that complement that ensemble with a double bass are relatively rare, the Dvořák, however, being perhaps the best known example rather than the sole one...

It is interesting to note that the two-viola and two-cello quintets had their first appearances at almost exactly the same time, although Boccherini's first quintet (with two cellos) appeared in 1771 and Mozart's first one (with two violas) two years later in 1773. For some reason, Boccherini completely changed over to two-viola quintets in 1797 (from G 379 onwards) and also introduced the first-ever double bass quintets (G 337-9).

[eschiss1]

String quintets usually add a second cello to the string quartet or, in Mozart's and other cases, a second viola; those that complement that ensemble with a double bass are relatively rare, the Dvořák, however, being perhaps the best known example rather than the sole one...

It is interesting to note that the two-viola and two-cello quintets had their first appearances at almost exactly the same time, although Boccherini's first quintet (with two cellos) appeared in 1771 and Mozart's first one (with two violas) two years later in 1773. For some reason, Boccherini completely changed over to two-viola quintets in 1797 (from G 379 onwards) and also introduced the first-ever double bass quintets (G 337-9).

According to Alfred Einstein's admittedly out-of-date Mozart: His Character, His Work, Mozart's first string quintet (K174, 1773) (the later ones didn't follow for some years) may have been inspired by his friend Michael Haydn's efforts in the medium (e.g. according to the list at http://www.haydn.dk, MH 187 and 189 also from 1773, string quintets for 2 violins, 2 violas and bass in C and G. )
Eric