The Orchestra of the Southern Finger Lakes continues its Musicians Choice Chamber Music Series this month with a program that pairs early Beethoven with one of Brahms’s most ambitious chamber works. The Felix Piano Quartet will be featured in a concert highlighting Beethoven’s String Trio in G major, Op. 9, No. 1, and Brahms’s Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor.
Violinist Reuben Foley describes the Beethoven trio as a work from a pivotal moment in the composer’s career. “It was written around 1797 or ’98, when Beethoven was only twenty-eight and still fairly new to Vienna,” Foley said. “You can really hear him trying to write music for a more serious audience — music meant to be listened to, not just played for fun.”
Although Beethoven had not yet published any string quartets, Foley notes that the Opus 9 trios were especially popular during his lifetime. “The first movement, in particular, has a symphonic quality,” he said. “There’s a slow introduction into the Allegro, and each movement is incredible in its own right. After Beethoven started publishing quartets, he never wrote another string trio, and these pieces were almost forgotten until the twentieth century.”
Foley also points out that the trio format places unusual demands on the players. “Without a second violin to balance the soprano line, the violin part is very exposed,” he explained. “It’s more like the tradition of Haydn and Mozart, where the violin often carries the melody, but the inner voices are dense and songful — they really draw the ear.”
In the second half of the program, the quartet is joined by pianist for Brahms’s Piano Quartet No. 1, a work violist Max Buckholtz calls “pioneering.” “This piece explores how far sonata form can be stretched while still staying rooted in classicism,” Buckholtz said. “That’s really Brahms’s claim to fame — being progressive without abandoning structure.”
Buckholtz notes that the quartet unfolds gradually, beginning with deceptively simple material at the piano. “That opening theme seems modest, but Brahms keeps embellishing it,” he said. “It even foreshadows the last movement, which turns into this incredible Hungarian-style romp that really excites the audience.”
Despite its status today, the piece was not immediately embraced. “When it was premiered, only a handful of people applauded,” Buckholtz said. “Even Clara Schumann and Joseph Joachim encouraged Brahms to shorten parts of it. He tried revising the piece, but in the end, we have what he originally intended — and it’s a fascinating masterpiece.”
The Felix Piano Quartet is a relatively new ensemble, having formed last summer and begun rehearsing regularly in the fall. “The music really came first,” Foley said. “Our cellist, Rintaro, pitched these two pieces, and the group grew out of that.”
The ensemble’s name is a holdover from early programming discussions. “We originally talked about playing Mendelssohn — Felix Mendelssohn — and the name stuck,” Foley said. “Even though we’re not playing Mendelssohn on this program, we’ve really taken a liking to the name, and to each other.”
The Felix Piano Quartet performs Thursday, January 22 at 7:30 p.m. at the Corning Museum of Glass as part of the Orchestra of the Southern Finger Lakes Musicians Choice Chamber Music Series. More information is available at https://osfl.org.