Chamber Music

Saint-Saëns’ Fantaisie for Violin and Harp: Sunny and Exotic

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Camille Saint-Saëns’ Fantaisie for Violin and Harp, Op. 124 is filled with charm, virtuosity, and dreamy exoticism. The 72-year-old Saint-Saëns was vacationing in the city of Bridger in the Italian Riviera when, in 1907, he composed this sparkling miniature. He dedicated the work to a musical duo made up of two sisters, harpist Clara Eissler and violinist Marianne Eissler. Set in a single brief movement and bathed in Italian sunshine, the music …

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Prokofiev’s String Quartet No. 1 in B Minor: Classical Foundations

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The impetus for Sergei Prokofiev’s First String Quartet came from America. In 1930, Prokofiev received the commission from the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation of the Library of Congress. The Brosa Quartet premiered the work in Washington, D.C. on April 25, 1931. At the time, Prokofiev lived in exile in Paris, having fled his native land shortly after the 1917 Russian Revolution. In 1936, he would return home, telling friends, “I must see …

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Prokofiev’s Overture on Hebrew Themes: Klezmer Conversations

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When the February Revolution of 1917 broke out in Petrograd, Sergei Prokofiev resettled in the United States, stating that his native Russia “had no use for music at the moment.” Soon after arriving in New York, the 28-year-old Prokofiev received a commission from Zimro, a touring Soviet ensemble made up of Russian Jewish immigrants. The new sextet was to be based on themes from a notebook of Jewish folksongs. In his autobiography, …

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Ingram Marshall’s “Wanderer’s Night Song”: Hymnodic Twilight Meditations

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“The all too familiar hymns of my childhood have come back to haunt me,” wrote American composer Ingram Marshall (1942-2022) above the program note for his 1992 work for string quartet, Evensongs. Marshall went on to describe the six sections of Evensongs as “hymnodic meditations” concerning twilight. The concluding section, Fast falls the eventide: Wanderer’s Night Song is haunting and atmospheric. Frequently, Marshall blended elements of minimalism and electronic music (listen to the 1982 Fog …

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Poulenc’s Violin Sonata: A Wartime Elegy

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Francis Poulenc’s Violin Sonata is music born out of war and tragedy. It is one of a series of defiant, politically charged works Poulenc composed between 1942 and 1943 while remaining in occupied France.* The Sonata was dedicated to the Spanish poet, Federico García Lorca, who was arrested, imprisoned without trial, and executed by Falangist forces during the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936. Poulenc, who wrote numerous chamber pieces …

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Schubert’s Octet: A Journey to the Magic Land of Song

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Although they lived in Vienna as contemporaries, it is unclear if Schubert and Beethoven ever met. The two composers shared a mutual respect, but in many ways they were polar opposites. While Beethoven dazzled audiences as a revolutionary giant of the symphony, during his lifetime, Schubert was known almost exclusively for his songs. Publishers failed to take interest in Schubert’s instrumental works, and many, such as the “Great” C Major Symphony No. …

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Fauré’s Piano Quartet No. 2 in G Minor: Exploring Dreams and Passions

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Gabriel Fauré’s motivation for writing the Piano Quartet No. 2, in G minor, Op. 45 remains something of a mystery. There was no commission. The work appears to represent the composer’s personal exploration of the magical possibilities regarding an unusual combination of instruments: piano, violin, viola, and cello. Only Mozart, and a handful of other composers, had ventured into this territory. Arriving seven years after Fauré’s First Piano Quartet, the G minor …

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