There seems to be, in most cases, a marked stylistic difference between the early and late music of any composer. This difference is more pronounced than usual, however, in the oeuvre of Alberto Ginastera. The nationalistic and folkloric tendencies that so clearly evoked the composer's native Argentina in Ginastera's first works seem dramatically distant from the experiments in serialism, harmonic plurality, and microtonality that fueled his later output.

Ginastera's Piano Quintet (1963) exhibits a breadth of aural effects that aptly characterizes the composer's ingenious synthesis of styles. The Quintet is configured in such a way that the four movements for full ensemble (1, 3, 5, and 7) are separated by cadenzas for one or two instruments. The introductory movement begins with a series of bold, harsh gestures, the sustained harmonies in the strings underlaid by the piano's restless wanderings. As the ensemble settles into an uncomfortable harmonic stasis, the viola and cello undertake the first cadenza. While there are moments of local rhythmic stability, the movement as a whole is quite free in form, relying on gestural, rather than thematic, unity. The third movement, "Scherzo fantastico," is a web of disconcerting and vaguely ornithological sound effects à la Messiaen in the strings, complemented by quick, wide figurations in the piano. The subsequent cadenza is taken on by the two violins, which engage in a dialogue of devilish tremolos and rhapsodic melodies. The texture of the fifth movement is disparate and disjunct, a layering of translucent figures rather than a collage of opaque ones. After the piano's turbulent cadenza the ensemble reassembles, the strings creating an unsettling counterpoint to the piano's relentless rhythms before finally joining with the piano for the thunderous tutti ostinato that closes the work.

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