Gabriel Fauré: Piano Quartet No. 1 in C minor, Op. 15
Today’s audience might wonder what made Fauré’s dreamy First Piano Quartet sound so new and different at the time.
Author: Benjamin Pesetsky
Benjamin Pesetsky is a composer and writer. He serves on the staff of the San Francisco Symphony and also contributes program notes for the Philadelphia Orchestra and Melbourne Symphony.
Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Trio in C minor, Op. 1, No. 3
The C-minor Piano Trio was the controversial piece in the Op. 1 set—Haydn criticized it, and Beethoven thought his teacher was jealous of it.
Erwin Schulhoff: Five Pieces for String Quartet
Erwin Schulhoff’s relatively brief life spanned a period of incredible change in music and world affairs, beginning under the tutelage of Antonín Dvořák in the late Romantic tradition, and ending in 1942 as a victim of the Holocaust.
Joseph Haydn: String Quartet in G minor, Op. 74, No. 3, “Rider”
Haydn’s String Quartet in G minor, nicknamed “Rider” for the last movement’s rollicking theme, shows the adventurousness of the 61-year-old composer.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Flute Quartet No. 1 in D major, K. 295
In Mannheim, the virtuoso flutist Johann Baptist Wendling provided Mozart with a place to stay, a piano, and a bundle of commissions for flute quartets and concertos. But there was a catch.
Felix Mendelssohn: String Quintet No. 1 in A major, Op. 18
Mendelssohn wrote the String Quintet No. 1 in 1826 at 17 years old, revising it six years later with a new slow movement dedicated to the memory of Eduard Rietz, a close friend who had died of tuberculosis.
Georg Philipp Telemann: Suite for Two Violins, “Gulliver’s Travels”
Telemann published a periodical called “The Faithful Music Master,” filled with entertaining and instructive chamber music. Among the pieces was a set of violin duets inspired by a recent bestseller, Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels.
Antonín Dvořak: Piano Quartet No. 2 in E-flat major, Op. 87
Perhaps because it foils preconceptions about what Dvořák’s music should sound like, the Piano Quartet No. 2 is often overlooked. But it’s masterfully written and full of surprises.
Johann Sebastian Bach: Capriccio on the Departure of a Beloved Brother, BWV 992
Bach almost never crossed his keyboard music with drama or narrative. In fact, Capriccio on the Departure of a Beloved Brother may be his only instrumental work to tell a story so overtly.
Joseph Haydn: String Quartet in B-flat major, Op. 76, No. 4, “Sunrise”
The sunrise is in the first measures—the first violin peaks up from a gentle dissonance. And so the day begins: mostly sunny, with a chance of clouds in the slow movement.