By 1887, when he wrote this Piano Quintet, Antonín Dvořák was an established, successful composer with requests coming in for new works from musicians throughout Europe. “The big music world” had already embraced him. His Seventh and Eighth symphonies were international triumphs, English conductors were competing fiercely to secure the première of his next symphony, and the Slavonic Dances had carried his name across Europe and far beyond.

Pressed for new music, Dvořák initially returned to several works from a decade or two earlier, including an unpublished Piano Quintet in A. But both he and his musical language had evolved. Though never a political figure, he was now swept along by the rising tide of Czech nationalism, which sharpened his impulse to draw once more on the Slavic folk melodies of his youth. His mature style fused this Bohemian heritage with a confident international outlook. The early piano quintet – eventually published in 1959 as No. 1—belonged to the composer he had outgrown. A new work was needed.

That work became the four-movement Second Piano Quintet, written in the peaceful surroundings of his newly renovated farmhouse at Vysoká, some 50 kilometers south-west of Prague. Beginning in mid-August 1887, Dvořák completed it by early October. From first hearings, it was recognized as a masterpiece—a chamber work that stands alongside the Schumann, Brahms, and Franck piano quintets at the summit of the romantic repertoire. 

Two striking characteristics of the new work are its clarity of design and effortless lyricism. Dvořák moves rapidly from the gentle cello melody of the opening movement to a more passionate statement of its material. It is done in an entirely natural way and where nothing is contrived, with the help of the dumka, a popular folk form that Dvořák frequently turned to. Originally a narrative folk poem celebrating heroic deeds, the mood in a dumka alternately swings from quiet meditation to the most exuberant celebration—the word dumka comes from the Slavic word dumati, meaning “to meditate or recollect.” This stimulated Dvořák to incorporate a wide range of emotion in his music—including the elegiac second movement, with its skillful A-B-A-C-A-B-A structure. The Scherzo is full of melodic vitality and rhythmic bounce. It's based on a dance, the furiant, from Dvořák's own region of Bohemia, though without the dance’s traditional displaced accents. A high-spirited finale rounds off the work with unstoppable momentum.

— Haydn and Beethoven notes by Misha Amory, Dvořák note by Keith Horner. Comments welcomed: khornernotes@gmail.com