Gabriel Fauré held a prominent place in the late 19th-century and early 20th-century music scene in France. He excelled as a composer, teacher, administrator and organist and held several notable positions including the director of the Conservatoire de Paris in 1905, where he also taught composition, and other positions as educator and music critic. As educator, he taught such notable musicians as Maurice Ravel and Nadia Boulanger. Unfortunately, Fauré gradually began to lose his hearing, and his compositional output suffered in his later years. As a composer, Fauré is known for his contributions to the vocal repertoire, specifically his songs and song-cycles, as well as the famous Requiem. His compositional voice is a reflection of his solid theoretical studies in combination with his training as an organist. His works span from early Romantic in his youth to the twentieth-century harmonic style, prompting some scholars to refer to Fauré as the link between Brahms and Debussy. Fauré’s chamber music is a staple of the canon, and includes two string quintets, piano works, solo sonatas, a string quartet, and a piano trio. The Second Quintet, Op. 115, dates from 1921, his later period, when he suffered from considerable hearing loss. The first movement opens with an enigmatic, repeated motive in the piano that is neither major nor minor because the chord is not complete. The viola is the first instrument to enter with a beautiful singing melody. Note that the piano is not at the forefront of the ensemble. The second movement, Allegro vivo, is a Scherzo movement that opens with cascading material in the piano accompanied by pizzicatos in the strings. The rapid passagework begins to appear and disappear in the string section, then gradually fades into a legato, singing section which alternates between these two contrasting textures before a stately ending in all of the voices. The third movement, Andante moderato, begins with the strings, void of the piano which enters eventually with accompanimental figures that compliment and double the melodic figures in the strings. Throughout the rest of the movement, Fauré moves between solo moments in the piano with string accompaniment and varied combinations of melody and accompaniment. The fourth movement, Allegro molto, recalls the opening movement in its quick tempo, rhythmic ambiguity, and entrance of the first melodic material in the viola. Throughout the movement, the strings provide the melodic material and the piano provides the accompaniment. Although the work sounds as if it is always changing meter, it remains in the same time signature throughout as Fauré’s genius instead varies groupings of beats and accents to create the allusion of metrical change.
Program Notes are by Kyle Blaha, a candidate for the Doctor of Musical Arts Degree at The Juilliard School and faculty member in the Juilliard Pre-College and Evening Division.