Farrenc, Ravel, and Bridge

Tonight’s program opens with the work of composer, pianist, pedagogue, and scholar Louise Farrenc, a towering musical figure of 19th-century Paris. In addition to her many accomplishments, she fought for equal pay with her male colleagues as the only woman professor at the Paris Conservatoire. Her beautiful Piano Quintet takes up the sonorous instrumentation of Schubert’s Trout Quintet, performed last week. The second half of the program brings to light another forgotten gem, the romantically-inclined Sextet by turn-of-the-century British composer Frank Bridge.

LOUISE FARRENC
Piano Quintet No. 1 in A Minor, Op. 30
Renée Jolles, violin • Liz Freivogel, viola • Denise Djokic, cello • Kurt Muroki, bass • Amalia Rinehart, piano

MAURICE RAVEL
La Valse for two pianos
Pei-Shan Lee, Elinor Freer, piano 

FRANK BRIDGE
String Sextet in E-Flat Major, H. 107
Mikhail Kopelman, Renée Jolles, violin • Ivo-Jan van der Werff, SoHui Yun, viola • Steven Doane, Rosemary Elliott, cello