When Gabriel Fauré, then 76, unveiled his Piano Quintet No. 2 in C minor in 1921, he surprised just about everyone. For one thing, no one except his wife knew he was even working on anything. For another, he was supposed to be retired, having stepped down from the directorship of the Paris Conservatory only the year before.
Though the composer’s health in his later years was far from the best, thanks in part to decades of heavy smoking, the Quintet conveys a surprisingly youthful spirit, full of tenderness and ardor. Paradoxically, a knowing serenity hangs over the piece, lending it a kind of wisdom and balance. I am reminded of Wordsworth’s assessment that poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings recollected in tranquility.
It’s one of two works by seasoned French composers that we’ll enjoy on this week’s “Music from Marlboro.”
We’ll also hear Charles Gounod’s classically proportioned and wholly delightful “Petite symphonie.” Gounod, who is best known for his opera “Faust” and for his setting of “Ave Maria,” was 66 at the time of the work’s premiere in 1885. Though the structure is well-worn, based on the standard symphonic form developed a hundred years earlier by composers like Haydn and Mozart, its long-limbed melodies and occasional harmonic surprises mark it as a product of its time. In spite of its evident nostalgia, it’s another work in which the spirit of youth seems ever-green.
Gounod’s “Petite symphonie” will be performed by Marlboro wind players, including “the Heifetz of the flute” (Gramophone) Marina Piccinini, principal oboist of the Metropolitan Opera Nathan Hughes, principal oboist of the Minnesota Orchestra Joseph Peters, principal clarinetist of the New York Philharmonic Anthony McGill, New York-based freelance clarinetist Alicia Lee (Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, The Knights, NOVUS and ACME), principal bassoonist of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra Brad Balliett, San Francisco Symphony bassoonist Steven Dibner, newly appointed principal hornist of the Berlin Philharmonic David Cooper, and former principal horn of the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra (and now concert soloist) Radovan Vlatković, from a concert given in 2013.
Fauré’s Quintet in C minor will be performed by pianist Roman Rabinovich (top prizewinner at the 2008 Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition), violinists YooJin Jang (winner of the 2017 Concert Artists Guild Competition) and Scott St. John (formerly of the St. Lawrence String Quartet), violist Shuangshuang Liu (associate principal violist with the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra), and cellist Will Chow (of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra), from a concert given in 2015.
I hope you’ll join me for a program of French music that belies and defies the passage of time, in performances from the archives of the legendary Marlboro Music Festival, this Wednesday evening at 6:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network.
Marlboro School of Music and Festival: Official Page
FOREVER YOUNG: Gabriel Fauré (left) and Charles Gounod
