Julius Röntgen, Quintet for Piano and Strings (1927)

We’re going intense this week, with a Quintet for Piano and Strings by Dutch composer Julius Röntgen. He is one of those composers where I’m amazed his music isn’t played more than it is. It’s not for lack of recognition in his lifetime. He was hugely significant in Dutch musical life — he’s probably the country’s most celebrated composer, and was also influential as a performer and arts administrator. He was also the husband of Amanda Röntgen-Maier, whose violin sonata I featured last week. Their joint salon was a hub for some of the most important musicians of the day. And it’s not for lack of quality either. His music is fantastic!

This atmospheric quintet is one of his later works, from 1927. Why it isn’t in the standard repertoire is beyond me. It has an unforgettable opening that wouldn’t sound out of place on a film soundtrack — its rocking figurations and yearning melody conjure up images of misty moors, dense forests, and promise tension and drama.

The short quintet more than delivers on this promise. The second movement explodes with energy, and the brief fragments of the melody from the first movement that break through the texture sound as though they are only just clinging on, fighting against being swept away completely. The opening material does, finally, get a short reprise at the end of the finale.

The quintet is in four movements:

1. Andante

2. Allegro

3. Lento e mosso

4. Con moto, ma non troppo allegro

• Does the music sound resolved by the end?

• What do you imagine causes the tension that drives this piece?

ARC Ensemble, Right Through the Bone: Chamber Music by Julius Röntgen

This is a wonderful recording by the ARC Ensemble (Artists of the Royal Conservatory in Canada). Full of gloom!

If you want to listen to this in tandem with Amanda Röntgen-Maier’s work, to really get into the composers’ world, then her Violin Sonata was last week’s Slow Listening.