Having mentioned Vierne's unfairly ignored piano quintet in Andruini's thread on Vierne, I thought it might be interesting to see what piano quintets people here particularly enjoy. (By piano quintet I mean pieces for piano and string quartet, not pieces for five pianos ). The ensemble, largely invented by Luigi Boccherini, who composed a dozen of them (way more than any other composer known to me), seems to invite composers to make especially grand gestures, allowing both the conversational feel of the string quartet and the expansive emotionality of much larger works.
My list:
1) Anton Rubinstein, Op. 99, g minor
2) Johannes Brahms, Op. 34, f minor
3) Louis Vierne, Op. 42, c minor
4) Edward Elgar, Op. 84, a minor
5) Antonin Dvorak, Op. 81, A Major (whew! At last a major key quintet)
6) Dmitri Shostakovitch, Op. 57, g minor
7) Cesar Franck, f minor
8) Franz Schubert, Op. 114, 'Trout,' A Major (with a double bass in lieu of a second violin)
My list:
1) Anton Rubinstein, Op. 99, g minor
2) Johannes Brahms, Op. 34, f minor
3) Louis Vierne, Op. 42, c minor
4) Edward Elgar, Op. 84, a minor
5) Antonin Dvorak, Op. 81, A Major (whew! At last a major key quintet)
6) Dmitri Shostakovitch, Op. 57, g minor
7) Cesar Franck, f minor
8) Franz Schubert, Op. 114, 'Trout,' A Major (with a double bass in lieu of a second violin)