Allegro con fuoco

Andante

Fantasia, quasi variazioni

The early Quintet in C minor, scored for the same instrumentation as Schubert’s ‘Trout’, was composed in 1903 and revised twice before the first performance, at the Aeolian Hall on 14 December 1905, but after a performance in 1918 it was withdrawn by Vaughan Williams. It was finally published in an edition by Bernard Benoliel a century after its composition. Michael Kennedy speaks of ‘the shadow of Brahms looming over’ the work and this seems especially true of the expansive first movement. The expressive, romantic melody of the Andante second movement is more characteristic of its composer at this stage in his career, and it has some similarity to the song Silent Noon, composed the same year. The finale is a set of five variations, ending with a beautiful bell-like coda. This work was written in 1903. As Michael Kennedy observes, what matters with a work such as this is not whether it anticipates Vaughan Williams’s later masterpieces (for the most part, it doesn’t), but that it is impressive in its own right. He does, however, make an intriguing observation: ‘Vaughan Williams may have withdrawn the Quintet but he did not forget it, for in 1954 he used the theme of the finale, slightly expanded, for the variations in the finale of his Violin Sonata.’

Nigel Simeone 2013