The work consists of three contrasting movements. The first movement presents the mixture of sustained sounds and fast passages. The second is Lento of soft and delicate tone kept throughout the whole movement. Expressive and flexible melodic line of a piano is surrounded with the separate tones of the other instruments, like a singing voice and its echo. The third movement - the grotesque scherzo – unfolds as a chimerical interlace of light passages and flashes of short notes and chords. Gradually the tempo becomes slower, while the dramatic tension gets stronger. Toward the end dramatic dialogues of the instruments form the climax section. The piece ends with sorrow recitative of piano solo in the lowest register.
The first version of the Quintet was commissioned by and dedicated to the Ensemble Wiener Collage, which performed the piece for the first time in 1997 in Triest.
Alexander Shchetynsky
© 2000 by Alexander Shchetynsky