- Brahms’s first version of this work, composed in 1862, was actually scored for string quintet (2 violins, viola, 2 cellos), as an homage to Schubert’s String Quintet D. 956. A version of this piece also exists as a sonata for two pianos.1
- This piece was finally published as a piano quintet in 1865. It premiered in Leipzig on June 22, 1866.2
- Brahms dedicated this work to Princess Anna of Hesse.212 The Princess heard Brahms and Clara Schumann perform the two-piano version of this work in the summer of 1864, and she loved it so much that Brahms dedicated the two-piano and piano quintet versions to her. In return, Princess Anna gave Brahms a gift for his historical musical manuscript collection: the original score of Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in g minor, K. 550.3
Sources
- George S. Bozarth and Walter Frisch, “Brahms, Johannes,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed March 25, 2022, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000051879.
- Ibid.
- Jan Swafford, Johannes Brahms: A Biography (New York: Vintage Books, 1997), 287.
Cut IDs
10880 17974 19680 40902