FRANZ LIMMER (1808-1857): Piano Quintet in D Minor, Op. 13, FERDINAND RIES (1784-1838): Piano Quintet in B Minor, Op. 74.

Description: This title dates probably dates from 2004 and was never released in the U.S. (another casualty of switching distributors). But boy was it worth stumbling upon! Limmer's quintet (for the forces of Schubert's Trout) probably dates to the early 1830s and is a huge four-movement work of 46 minutes, bringing to mind Schubert in instrumentation, "heavenly length" and the delectable Schubertian second theme of the first movement. Johann Strauss I winks at us in the trio of the scherzo and the brilliant pianism of Hummel is present throughout - and what a beautiful, soulful adagio. Presumably the reason Limmer appears in neither of the two latest Groves nor in Baker's is that he spent his career from 1834 until his death in Timisoara, then part of Austria-Hungary, now Romania. His obituary mentioned "a number of symphonies" but we can hardly dare hope for those... Nepomuk Fortepiano Quintet.