LINCOLN CENTER

Alice Tully Hall
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center

Esteemed Ensemble

Suk - Quartet in A minor for Piano, Violin, Viola, and Cello, Op. 1 (1891)
Brahms - Quartet No. 3 in C minor for Piano, Violin, Viola, and Cello, Op. 60 (1855-56, 1874)
Dvořák - Quartet in E-flat major for Piano, Violin, Viola, and Cello, Op. 87 (1889)

"After extensive American and European tours, this ensemble of close friends and colleagues reunites for a program of piano quartet classics. Brahms’s masterful work is juxtaposed with Dvořák’s irresistibly charming quartet, and these widely-loved piano quartets are perfectly balanced by a stunning work from great Czech master (and Dvořák’s son-in-law) Josef Suk."




"Today’s concert celebrates one of chamber music’s richest genres: the piano quartet. While most everyone has heard of the string quartet, and many know the piano trio, the piano quartet sits just outside of the epicenter of the chamber ensemble solar system. Yet, this configuration of piano, violin, viola, and cello owns some of the literature’s most popular and challenging repertoire, and is heard on chamber music stages with almost constant frequency. Among those who have composed piano quartets are Mozart,Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Brahms, Dvořák, Saint-Saëns, Fauré, and even Mahler—his only chamber work!

The piano quartet ensemble possesses certain attributes that are attractive to players, listeners, and obviously to composers as well. Curiously, the piano quartet encompasses two major chamber ensemble configurations: the piano trio (piano, violin, and cello) and the string trio (violin, viola, and cello). The string trio, which received standard-setting works by the mature Mozart and the young Beethoven, is a kind of distilled version of the string quartet, each player taking on intensified obligations in the absence of the string quartet’s second violinist. The piano trio, brought to fruition by Haydn and developed by composers ever since, is the ultimate chamber challenge for pianists, violinists, and cellists, each of whom must execute exposed, individual parts composed with soloistic virtuosity. The combination of the two groups offers the listener, on occasion, the pure string sonority associated with the string quartet, the transparency of the piano trio, and the electricity of the duo genres of violin, viola, and cello sonatas with accompaniment. And if that were not enough: contained in the piano quartet are also the ensembles of violin and viola (think Mozart), violin and cello (thinkKodály), and violin and violin (think Prokofiev).

With all this great music at hand, it’s natural that we walk on stage for you today with excitement, joined by our colleagues with whom we have appeared numerous times, nationally and internationally, since we first played together in 2011. This program is the second we have presented at CMS, and it comes to you once again at the end of a multi-city tour. It all went well, and we are very glad to be home!"