The combination of piano and string quartet only became really fashionable in the mid-nineteenth century. Before that piano quintets with strings frequently used the combination of piano, violin, viola and double bass (Schubert’s Trout Quintet is a famous example). It was the deserved success of Schumann’s Piano Quintet (1842) that opened the flood gates; the Brahms f minor Quintet followed in 1864 and Dvořák contributed two examples of the genre, both in A, the first appearing in 1872 and the second in 1887.

It’s the 1887 work that you can hear above. It has the traditional four movements, the second being a dumka (see previous post) and, while the third describes itself as a furiant, there’s precious little internal evidence to support the claim (what was Dvořák thinking??)

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