Piano Quintet (Franck) score open at the piano, a gesture which was interpreted as mark of disdain. The work has been described as having a "torrid emotional power", and Édouard Lalo characterized it as an "explosion". Other critics have been less positively impressed: Roger Scruton has written of the quintet's "unctuous narcissism". There are three movements: The music has a cyclical character whereby a motto theme of two four-bar phrases, used 18 times in the first movement, recurs at strategic point later in the work. Piano Quintet (Franck) César Franck's Piano Quintet in F minor is a quintet for piano, 2 violins, viola,
String Quintet (Schubert) with Kurt Reher on second cello (a 1994 CD reissue of this performance was awarded a Gramophone Award). Among modern recordings, that featuring the Melos Quartet with Mstislav Rostropovich (1977) has been acclaimed, and is notable for the exceptionally slow tempo adopted for the Adagio. Rostropovich later recorded the quintet with the Emerson String Quartet (12/1990) on the occasion of the gala concert celebrating the 125th anniversary of the BASF AG, Ludwigshafen. A few recordings of the quintet performed on period instruments exist, including a 1990 recording on the Vivarte label with the following lineup: Vera Beths and Lisa Rautenberg,