Fauré’s First Piano Quartet opens with the three string instruments announcing the first surging theme against the piano’s syncopated underpinnings. A sense of nervous edginess pervades much of this sonata-form movement, although the second theme—offered sequentially by viola, violin, cello, and piano—injects a more graceful feeling that some might hear as Debussyian.
The Scherzo is lighter than air, and subtle musical conflicts, including rhythmic competition between the meters of 2/4 and 6/8, keep us from feeling very grounded for much of it. The very sound of the wispy Trio section, with the strings muted, points toward the music of Fauré’s pupil Maurice Ravel, who was born just a year before this piece was begun.
The Adagio comes next, and even if we do not hear it as a confession of romantic disillusionment we may still allow that it qualifies as mournful. But mournfulness in Fauré is not depressive; instead, it is an emotion supported by nobility and ultimately achieving serenity.
The energetic finale is not the music that concluded this work when it was premiered in 1880. Fauré replaced the movement in 1883, prior to the piano quartet’s publication in 1884. Whether the eventual finale represents a revision or a total re-composition remains uncertain, as the original version does not survive.
Here is a performance of the Piano Quartet #1 by Gabriel Faure:
https://youtu.be/xjd47R2YFI8
