The Piano Quintet in F minor, Op. 34, by Johannes Brahms was completed in 1864. It was dedicated to Princess Anna of Hesse. Like most piano quintets composed after Robert Schumann's, it is written for piano and string quartet (two violins, viola and cello). The piece is in four movements. The work began life as a string quintet (completed in 1862). Brahms worked it into a sonata for two pianos (in which form Brahms and Carl Tausig performed it) before giving it its final form. Brahms destroyed the original version for string quintet, but published the Sonata as Op. 34 bis. The outer movements are more adventurous than usual in terms of harmony and are unsettling in effect. The introduction to the finale, with its rising figure in semitones, is especially remarkable. Both piano and strings play an equally important role throughout this work.
