Quintet in three parts for piano and strings op. 41

Composed in 1917, Gabriel Pierné’s Piano Quintet “in three parts” is a watershed: while epitomizing the Belle Époque aesthetics, it also announces the upheavals to come and the new deal of the 1920s. Dedicated to Gabriel Fauré, the work was premiered on 22 February 1919 at the Société Nationale de Musique by Gaston Poulet and Victor Gentil (violins), S. Jarecki (viola), Louis Ruyssen (cello) and the composer (piano). Gaston Carraud, writing in the 24 February issue of La Liberté, praised it thus: “This is a work composed with great breadth, written with meticulous care, but where the author, has never constrained his temperament: everything exudes calm, grace and vitality.” Faithful to the tradition of the Société Nationale, the quintet follows in César Franck’s footsteps, particularly in the introduction to the third movement, which revisits the themes already stated and has them answering one another. The borrowing from the Basque folklore – the zortzico in quintuple metre – is also in keeping with the fin-de-siècle aesthetics. It is the rhythmic treatment of the whole piece that gives it its modernist credentials, from the first movement’s ostinato to the complex combinations of the last pages, where the five beats of the Basque dance encounter binary and ternary metres. Gabriel Fauré wrote enthusiastically in May 1918: “By dedicating your new work to me, you show me an affection that touches me immensely, I assure you! You tell me it is heavy! Heavy with music, certainly, to which we are no longer accustomed.”