Having finally acquired the last of the new VSL solo strings, I lost no time in putting them to work and the result was a piano quintet which I completed in the, for me, record fast time of ten days for a piece of this length. The great 2nd quintet of Fauré was the inspiration and - apart from a direct quote -- the way the themes unfold owe something to his example though the actual character of this work is pretty different. It's probably as competent as anything I've written in "traditional" style (which I'd like to move away from in my next piece) though folk are of course welcome to make suggestions for improvement.
As usual, it can be found on my "latest works" page https://play.reelcrafter.com/dko22/latestworks
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Apparently this forum hasn't reached the fjords yet in spite of much pining. ;)
I listened to this piano quintet no.2 all the way through. To my classically-biased ears, it sounds like a paradoxical juxtaposition of the lyrical and the grotesque, with passages that sound almost traditional in the midst of music of more modern language. I found the middle lyrical part soothing to listen to, and was pleasantly struck by the descending motif at the transition to the 3rd movement(?). The ending came rather abruptly; I was expecting a more ambiguous ending. Probably I'll have to listen to this a few more times to acclimatize to its language, which is rather foreign to my usual musical fare.
Overall, the impression I got was a kind of meditation over a swampy land of dark green foliage. OK, that probably doesn't mean anything to you, but that's the mental image I got from listening to this work. :-P It isn't really to my usual musical tastes, but nevertheless seems to have more to it than meets the eye (ear?). Rather impressive that you wrote this in only 10 day!
I guess Rowy has given it a break for the moment as well!
Anyway, most interesting observations, HS, which in some ways are not so different to what I'd myself intended with this piece, though the starting point of comparison should be with Faure, if only to see how it differs. As for the ending, to me the very abruptness is itself a form of ambiguity, although not everyone's going to see it like that. Anyway, many thanks fo taking the time to listen.
I have to confess ignorance of Faure; the only pieces I have heard of his are an orchestral overture of his, and the Romance op.28. So I don't really have much to go on in terms of a point of comparison.
Which Faure pieces would you recommend to listen to, for comparison with your work? If my free time shows up again (har har) I might have a listen or two, if it might help me (hopefully) better understand your music.
the real Faure for me are the late works which are in many ways the opposite of the "salon music" (like the Romance). As I said in the introduction, the main inspiration here is the piano quintet no. 2 but listen also to the string quartet or the last few piano Nocturnes.
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