NOSPR Chamber Musicians / Passionate Romanticism - NOSPR

Carl Frühling was born in Lviv, the capital of Austrian Galicia, but spent most of his life in Vienna, where he worked as a teacher, pianist, and accompanist to such distinguished figures as Pablo de Sarasate and Bronisław Huberman. His Piano Quintet in F sharp minor was composed in 1892, shortly after he has completed his studies. Although published, the work disappeared from performance practice after the First World War, only to be revived in the 1990s. It is dense, substantial chamber music, Brahmsian in spirit, and fully deserving of performance and attentive listening.

Piano Quartet in C minor, Op 15 was composed by Gabriel Fauré some years earlier, but it may be described in much the same terms. The qualities that should be added to the description, however, are a firmer compositional hand, a sweetness of melody, and a refinement of harmony. Although the Quartet is also the work of a comparatively young composer, it already reveals the talent of the finest French musician of the generation born in the 1840s.

Adam Suprynowicz

Concert duration: approximately 80 minutes