Presents
Franz Limmer
Piano Quintet in d minor, Op.13
For Piano, Violin, Viola, Cello & Bass (Trout Instrumentation)
Your group has just finished playing the Schubert Trout Quintet for piano, violin, viola, cello and bass. Now what? What else is there? One of the answers to this question is the Piano Quintet in d minor, Op.13 by Franz Limmer
Franz Limmer (1808-1857) was born in Vienna. He attended the Vienna Conservatory where he studied cello, clarinet and composition, the latter with the composer Ignaz Ritter von Seyfried. Several of Limmer’s early composition attracted considerable attention and led to him eventually obtaining the post of conductor of the German Theater in the then Hungarian Habsburg city of Temesvar (today’s Timisoara in Romania), which at the time had a substantial German population. He eventually became music director of the city, a post he held until his death. He composed in most genres and besides this piano quintet has a string quartet to his credit.
The Piano Quintet in d minor dates from 1834 and is dedicated to Raimund Härtel, his publisher and owner of Breitkopf & Härtel. The main theme to the opening movement, Allegro con energico, is only four bars in length begun tutti but then enlarged by the piano alone. The second subject has a distinct Schubertian flavor. The dramatic second movement, Allegro vivace assai, is a scherzo. It is characterized by heavy sycopation and a continuous thrusting and parrying between the strings and the piano. In the trio section, we can hear that Limmer had been a composer of waltzes and the music is not at all unlike that of his better known contemporary, Johann Strauss Sr. The lovely third movement, Adagio, has a dreamy quality, complete with short cadenzas and telling dialogues between the various voices. An exciting finale, Allegro con fuoco, is full of appealing melodies and rhythmic surprises, tops off this fine work.
We looked for a set of parts to this very fine work for many years and eventually we were able to obtain a copy of a set of the original parts which were brought out by the publisher Breitkopf & Härtel in 1835. (there is no other edition) It is an amazingly clean copy for its age, but at 175 years and counting, as you might imagine, the ink has faded somewhat, but it is entirely readable. We have added rehearsal letters, creating what we believe is a very serviceable performance edition. But, it is not the equal in quality of a modern edition. For one thing, piano parts published during this era do not have the string parts above them, only the piano part. Why not bring out a new edition you might ask? Because cost of doing it would make the work almost prohibitively expensive for most musicians--- three, four or five times more than our price. (we ourselves are musicians) Our goal is to revive worthwhile music such as this. Hence an improved reprint seems the best solution. And we are offering it at almost 20% less than our already low standard price for piano quintets.
Parts: $34.95
