Franck: Piano Quintet in F minor, M. 7 - I. Molto moderato quasi lento

for this double/make-up entry, the first movements of two piano quintets by two contemporaneous french composers.
(this is also music i was more or less unfamiliar with, so it's easier for me to do these expositions of more well-known works)

M stands for wilhelm mohr, who catalogued franck's work in 1969.
this 3-movement quintet was written in 1878-1879, pretty much right in the middle of his fairly prosperous career as professor at the paris conservatoire (his so-called "late period" lasts from 1872-1890). his new job allowed him to spend a lot more time composing, and he had a pretty reasonable output of work during this period, including a lot of the pieces we now know him best for - le chausseur maudit, symphonic variations, and later, the violin sonata.
wikipedia indicates that he is represented in the "standard" modern repertoire only by a fairly narrow range of works. i think perhaps this has to do with the fact that the color of much of what he wrote was so similar - hyperromantic, instrumentationally/texturally standard, lapsing sometimes into stagnation, even. but this piano quintet was one of his few works which had a successful premiere.

this massive first movement is angsty and vital, with a "theatrical grimness," as one of the critics wrote back in the day.
his work before this was mostly just sacred work, and this piece was the beginning of his actual success as a composer. nyphil writes that the mood's likeliest explanation was "franck's infatuation with his student augusta holmes, a beautiful and gifted woman 25 years his junior." apparently saint-saens, who was the pianist at the premiere, rather disliked this piece, as well as franck's wife, felicite (for perhaps obvious reasons).
this movement is opened by a slow instroduction with two components: huge angsty, dramatic cry from the strings, and a melancholy melody for the piano which begins at 0:27. at 3:43, the tempo suddenly changes to allegro, and a nice characterization for what's happening for the rest of the movement is that instead of the piano trying to calm the strings down, it's the other way around. the super-dotted rhythm is derived from the very opening string statement.
at 5:06 is a very chromatic theme which plays a crucial role in the work as a whole, repeating at various points throughout the three movements. it comes back at the end of this movement, much more agitated, at 7:43. in between you have a return of the slow introduction, and lots of development based on said theme.
looooots of chromatic movement through this piece - does quite a bit to undermine the tonal center. some characteristically french melody writing, and quite a lot of the devilish arpeggio-work that anyone who's familiar with the violin sonata will recognize - which was the next and maybe even only work that was quite as overtly passionate and heart-on-sleeve as this.

enjoy!