Fauré, Tsontakis, Bacewicz, Bridge

FAURÉ / Piano Trio in D minor, Op. 120 (1923)
George TSONTAKIS / Portraits by El Greco (Book 1): Quintet for Clarinet, Violin, Viola, Cello and Piano (2014 BCMS commission)
Grażyna BACEWICZ / Oboe Sonata (1937)
BRIDGE / Piano Quintet in D minor, H. 49 (1904-05; rev. 1912)

Faure’s Piano Trio in D minor demonstrates the composer’s rootedness in tradition while also utilizing an expansive harmonic language that marks the trio as a twentieth century work. George Tsontakis’s Portraits by El Greco (Book 1), BCMS’s 2014 commission, commemorates the 400th anniversary of the eponymous Greek painter’s death. Scored for piano quartet plus clarinet, five of the work’s six movements correspond to paintings that depict episodes in the life of Christ, while the first movement, “Toledo,” hauntingly depicts the landscape of El Greco’s adopted Spanish city. The Oboe Sonata by Grażyna Bacewicz is active and light throughout, avoiding extremes while displaying the oboist’s technical and lyrical facility. Yearning and passion spill forth from Frank Bridge’s Piano Quintet, a tour de force for both piano and strings. Its opening Allegro sets the tone for this three-movement work with its lush texture and symphonic swells of sound.

Featured musicians: Max Levinson, piano; Peggy Pearson, oboe; Romie de Guise-Langlois, clarinet; Alyssa Wang and Isabelle Durrenberger, violins; Marcus Thompson, viola; Raman Ramakrishnan, cello