Piano Quintet in C Major

Although Bartók was only in his early 20s when he composed the Piano Quintet in 1904, soon after graduating from the Liszt Academy in Budapest, this impassioned 40-minute piece reveals the composer’s affinity for 19th-century Romanticism. The Quintet has had a hazy performance record: Not only is the music much different in style from Bartók’s later modernist music, but the composer himself withdrew the work. Yet the piece is more than juvenilia; at its best, it captures the young composer's earliest attempts at fusing the Romantic tradition of Brahms and Dvořák. The Quintet is cast in four thematically linked movements. Particularly impressive are the last two: the nocturnal "Adagio" brings to mind the traditional 18th-century Hungarian verbunkos dance, while the impish, swiftly moving finale is animated by Hungarian csárdás rhythms, alternating with slower passages and atmospheric piano chords. Throughout, the Quintet's elegant interplay between string quartet and piano makes it an early Bartók piece well worth returning to.