In 1862 Brahms began work on a quintet along the lines of Schubert's famous two-cello string quintet. After receiving advice from his friend, violinist and composer Joseph Joachim, that the material was too strong for a string ensemble Brahms rewrote the piece as a sonata for two pianos in 1863-4. Clara Schumann commented that this version sounded like an arrangement, so Brahms again rewrote it as a quintet for piano and strings in the summer of 1864. The work was published in 1865 and received its first public performance in Leipzig the next year.

The Quintet has become one of the most famous and best-loved works in the chamber music repertoire, just like the Schubert Quintet in C that was Brahms' initial inspiration. Brahms published the piano duet version as Op 34b only in 1872 after he managed to retrieve the manuscript from the dedicatee, Princess Anna von Hessen.

The sinuous opening tune (played in unison by the first violin, cello and piano), together with a melodic fragment comprising a descending semitone, provides the musical material that permeates the entire piece. The slow, rocking second movement is a marvelous contrast to the stormy passion of the first movement.

The shadowy C minor beginning of the Scherzo is followed by a joyous chordal melody and a noble trio section. The movement finishes with the descending semitone melodic idea in a way that closely resembles the final notes of the Schubert Quintet.

In the Finale, a central section in sonata form (in which the recapitulation acts as the development section) is sandwiched between a slow introduction and an extended fast coda. The movement contains folky themes with a Hungarian flavour. It finishes with a forceful unison gesture.

Source: Parlance Chamber Concerts