Brahms’ opus 34 started its life as a string quintet in 1862. Twenty years after Schumann composed his piano quintet, the medium was still rather new. It grew on the dominance of the string quartet as the most popular of ensembles in chamber music (2 violins, a viola and a cello) and the advances in technique in the piano. In 1868 Brahms had rewritten his earlier quintet, destroyed it and released this as his opus 34b.
I admit I haven’t heard it that many times, but I should. Brahms has long been a favorite in chamber music for me. Being a string player myself (okay, I’m dabbling) I admit I have a slight preference for the string ensembles without piano. For me it sometimes is a bit of a brutal percussion instrument in a group of mellowed out strings. I already wrote about the pianist, Leon Fleisher (I totally forgot about that, nice feature this search function!).
The tag should actually say Kingsdayloot now, but I keep it.