Piano Quartet No. 1 in C minor, Op. 15 New York Performances

Gabriel Fauré’s *Piano Quartet No. 1 in C minor, Op. 15* (1879–83, revised 1883) sits at a turning point between French Romanticism and a leaner modern sensibility. Written for piano, violin, viola, and cello, it balances drive and restraint, with a slow movement that treats lyricism as structure rather than ornament. In New York, the quartet belongs to the city’s long Lincoln Center tradition of presenting French chamber music as repertory, not novelty, now heard at Alice Tully Hall under the Chamber Music Society. One can hear Fauré’s disciplined economy beginning to overtake the older, more demonstrative style.