Hans Huber's Piano Quintet No.1 was composed in 1896. Huber begins the opening movement, Andante con moto, in a rather unconventional way. Rather than introducing the main theme, he opens with a lengthy fugue for the strings alone. Only after this, does the piano enter and introduce the muscular main theme. The contrasting second theme bears resemblance to a gavotte, albeit, an updated one. A big, thrusting and very powerful scherzo, Allegrissimo, grabs the listen by the collar from its opening bars and does not let go. A calmer trio section provides contrast. A slow movement, Adagio, follows. It is a theme and set of variations. The theme is not your typical song-like melody but a canon. The finale, Allegro con fuoco, has a dramatic and exciting main theme and ends with a thrilling coda.
Hans Huber (1852-1921) was born in the Swiss town of Eppenberg. Between 1870-74, he studied at the Leipzig Conservatory with Carl Reinecke and Ernst Richter. After graduating he held a number of positions before being appointed a professor at the Basel Conservatory, where he served as director between 1889-1917. Huber’s music was firmly rooted in the Romantic movement inspired at first by Schumann and Brahms and then later by Liszt and Richard Strauss. He was widely considered Switzerland’s leading composer during the last quarter of the 19th and first decade of the 20th century. He composed in virtually every genre and many of his works were for long years part of various repertoires and the only works by a Swiss composer that were regularly performed outside of Switzerland. Although acknowledged as a composer of the first rank, as a Swiss, his music made little headway outside of Switzerland. Had he been German or Austrian, he would certainly have been much better known.
