Piano Quintet No. 2 in E Major, Op. 31

Farrenc composed this piano quintet in 1840 and it was published by her husband Aristide Farrenc’s Paris firm in 1842.¹
Farrenc dedicated this piece to the Duchesse d’Orléans.²
The work is scored for violin, viola, cello, bass, and piano, the same combination as Farrenc’s Piano Quintet No. 1 in a minor, Op. 30. Farrenc performed both of her quintets many times over the course of her career..³
- This happens to be the same scoring used in Schubert’s “Trout” Quintet, but scholar Christin Heitmann points out that Farrenc probably didn’t know Schubert’s quintet.⁴

“Piano Quintet No.2, Op.31 (Farrenc, Louise),” IMSLP, accessed February 10, 2022, https://imslp.org/wiki/Piano_Quintet_No.2%2C_Op.31_(Farrenc%2C_Louise).
Ibid.
Bea Friedland, “Farrenc family,” Grove Music Online, (2001), accessed February 10, 2022, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000009336.
Christin Heitmann, “Louise Farrenc (1804-1875),” in The New Historical Anthology of Music by Women, ed. James R. Briscoe (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2004), 172.

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