Piano Quintet in f minor

This work, composed in 1878/79, substitutes between chamber music intimacy and orchestral affluence, and symbolises the start of a series of significant late works by César Franck. Its composition was partly driven by the successful performance of Franck's youthful piano trios at the “Société nationale de musique" (founded in 1871), and probably also by a composition competition for works using this instrumental combination whose deadline Franck then went on to miss. The Quintet was received coolly at its first performance in January 1880, and it was performed just a few more times during the composer's lifetime. It has only been in the 20th century that audiences and critics came to recognise this work as a major milestone in the history of French chamber music, and it now enhances the Henle catalogue in a new Urtext edition.