January’s Tasting Music event features one of the great works in the chamber music canon, the Fauré Piano Quartet in C minor, Op. 15. Gabriel Fauré would eventually become the grand old man of French music, director of the Paris Conservatory and teacher to such luminaries as Maurice Ravel and Nadia Boulanger. But in 1876, he was part of the new wave of French composers looking to make his mark. By his own admission, progress was slow. After a gestation period of about four years, he revealed his C minor Piano Quartet in 1880. Following a successful premiere, Fauré took to heart criticisms of his colleagues further revising the work. The quartet in its final form emerged in 1883, a full seven years after Fauré began composing it.

From the noble opening unison string melody to the gently prickly scherzo to the romantic grandeur of the Adagio and the heaven-storming Finale, we discover that Fauré’s was a septenniad well spent!

Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924)

PIANO QUARTET IN C MINOR, OP. 15

I. Allegro molto moderato

II. Scherzo: Allegro vivo

III. Adagio

IV. Allegro molto

Artists: Timothy Christie, viola; Henry Kramer, piano; Maria Sampen, violin; and Sally Singer Tuttle, cello.