The piano quintet genre took off in the mid-19th century, when composers decided to combine the piano’s symphonic scale, virtuosity, and popularity with the sophistication of the string quartet, the most refined chamber music genre and ensemble. The result was a highly prestigious yet audience-friendly genre, appealing to numerous Romantic composers. Johannes Brahms’s Piano Quintet in F minor took a winding path to its final form: the musical material was originally written for two violins, a viola, and two cellos; then, dissatisfied with the result, the composer reworked it into a piece for two pianos, and only then did it evolve into a piano quintet – and one of the greatest chamber music favorites of all time. A far less known and performed representative of the genre is Ernő Dohnányi’s Piano Quintet in E-flat minor, composed in 1914 at the height of his career. This unjustly overlooked work is inextricably linked to the passionate sound of its Romantic predecessors, yet it plays with the duality of light and shadow even more boldly.

Founded in 2018, the Korossy Quartet aims to transmit the famous Hungarian string quartet tradition and to present the broadest possible repertoire to audiences. They are supported in their endeavors by such renowned artists as Günter Pichler, András Keller, Gábor Takács-Nagy, Péter Kováts, Katalin Kokas, Barnabás Kelemen, Márta Gulyás, and Eberhard Feltz. In 2021, the ensemble was awarded five different special prizes at the International Bartók Competition. This is not the first time the young quartet collaborates with pianist Zoltán Fejérvári, who, following his competition victories in the 2010s, became a highly esteemed guest in concert halls across Europe and the United States, both as a soloist and as a chamber musician.

Photo: Liszt Academy Budapest / János Posztós