Квинтет для фортепиано с квинтетом струнных ми мажор, соч. 44 Роберта Шумана

1842 chamber work by Robert Schumann

The Piano Quintet in E flat major, Op. 44, by Robert Schumann was composed in 1842 and received its first public performance the following year. Noted for its "extroverted, exuberant" character, Schumann's piano quintet is considered one of his finest compositions and a major work of nineteenth century chamber music. Composed for piano and string quartet, the work revolutionized the instrumentation and musical character of the piano quintet and established it as a quintessentially Romantic genre. The autograph manuscript of the work is preserved in the Universitäts und Landesbibliothek Bonn.

Schumann composed his piano quintet in just a few weeks in September and October 1842, in the course of his so called Year of Chamber Music. Before 1842 Schumann had completed no chamber music at all, with the exception of an early piano quartet composed in 1829. Following his marriage to Clara in 1840, Schumann turned to the composition of songs, chamber music and orchestral works. During his year long concentration in 1842 upon chamber music he executed the three string quartets, Op. 41, the piano quintet, Op. 44; the piano quartet, Op. 47; and the Phantasiestücke for piano trio, Op. 88. Schumann's work in that year was buoyant in character; John Daverio considers the Piano Quintet to be the "creative double" of the Piano Quartet that was written few weeks later, both displaying the "extroverted, exuberant side of the composer's creative genius". Schumann dedicated the piano quintet to his wife Clara. She was due to perform the piano part in the first private performance of the quintet on the 6th December 1842 at the home of Henriette Voigt and her husband Carl. However she fell ill and Felix Mendelssohn stepped in, sight reading the "fiendish" piano part. Mendelssohn's suggestions to Schumann after this performance led to revisions to the inner movements, including the addition to the third movement of a second trio. A notable performance came in 1852, when Schumann asked that the younger pianist Julius Tausch replace Clara in the quintet, explaining that "a man understands that better."

Tovey remarks the formal influence which Beethoven exerted over the quintet. He argues that the final movement's lengthy coda is a typically Beethovenian device, and likens the quintet in this respect to the ninth and fourteenth string quartets. He writes that the scherzo so much reflects his style that it "might almost have come from Beethoven." Daverio has argued that the quintet was influenced by Schubert's Piano Trio No. 2 in E flat major, a work Schumann had studied and performed intensively over several months in 1828 1829 and which he greatly admired, describing it as Schubert's "immortal trio."

The first movement's is marked Allegro brillante. This movement exposes much material which reappears later in the work. It sets in contrast exuberant material reflecting Schumann's brilliant, wild side, as described by Schumann in the character of Florestan, with slower, 'Eusebian' sections of great passion. The movement's energetic main theme opens in minims, and characterized by wide, upward leaping intervals. Tovey writes of the theme that its use of upward leaps is so striking that "it is impossible for the violoncello to throw in a casual leap of an octave in minims without implying the first theme". The contrasting second theme, marked dolce, is reached after a transitional section marked by glances at remoter flat keys. It is presented as a duet between cello and viola, and its "meltingly romantic" After the third and final appearance of the scherzo, a brief coda based on the scales concludes the movement, slipping in a recall of Trio I in the final bars.

Schumann's piano quintet was widely acclaimed and much imitated. Its success firmly established the piano quintet as a significant, and quintessentially Romantic, chamber music genre. The Piano Quintet in F minor, Op. 34 of Johannes Brahms, reworked from an earlier sonata for two pianos (itself a reworking of an earlier string quintet) at the urging of Clara Schumann, was one of a number of later piano quintets that show Schumann's influence and adopt his choice of instrumentation. Schumann's Piano Quintet failed to please at least one discriminating listener: Franz Liszt heard the piece performed at Schumann's home in 1848 and described it as "somewhat too Leipzigerisch," a reference to the conservative music of composers from Leipzig, especially Felix Mendelssohn. Schumann took enormous offense at this remark, especially because Mendelssohn, who was a great friend of Schumann's and whom Schumann somewhat idolised, had died only a year earlier. By some accounts Schumann rushed at Liszt and seized him by the shoulders. Liszt eventually apologised.

The funeral march theme of the second movement is prominently used as the main theme of the film Fanny and Alexander by Ingmar Bergman, and is played on violin by Rutger Hauer's character Lothos while Buffy kills the vampire portrayed by Paul Reubens in the 1992 feature Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It is also featured prominently on the all classical soundtrack of the noted 1934 horror film The Black Cat. It is used several times in Yorgos Lanthimos' 2018 period piece The Favourite.