THE BRITISH MUSIC SOCIETY OF NORTHERN IRELAND 1950 1951 THIRD RECITAL under the auspices of THE QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY OF BELFAST THE QUINTETTE DE L'ATELIER ÉMILE PASSANI (pianoforte) ANDRÉ PROFFIT (violin) JACQUES DEJEAN (violin) PIERRE LADHUIE (viola) JEAN RECULARD (violoncello) The Sir William Whitla Hall FRIDAY, 26th JANUARY 1951

Programme Quintet in C minor. Op. 115. Allegro moderato Allegro vivo Andante moderato Allegro molto Fauré Though Fauré was 76 when he wrote this work, it is full of freshness and youthful enthusiasm. The two main themes of the first movement are announced by the quartet, and the movement then becomes an animated colloquy on these subjects between piano and strings. The vivacious scherzo has an unbroken melodic line, with a rapid semiquaver figure which wanders into every group and hustles the indolent melodies aside. The Andante Moderato is full of the deepest emotion, rising to a passionate climax and finally dying away in a gentle whisper. The remarkable reincarnations of the main theme of the last movement can be summed up by a comment of Louis Aubert: "The changes in significance of which Fauré's themes are capable are a characteristic feature of his work. Whereas, in most classics, each musical phrase has its own definite character, tender, passionate, mournful, joyous-which it preserves unchanged throughout, Fauré is able to invest hist phrases continually with fresh interest and emotion".

11 Quartet in B flat. Op. 8. Allegro Adagio ma non troppo Menuetto Finale (Presto) Weber Though Weber is chiefly remembered as the founder of German romantic opera, he wrote a number of chamber works, of which this Quartet is a charming example. It was written in 1808, and is mainly in a serene and sunny vein, exhibiting, indeed, a typical Weberian romanticism. The piano announces the vigorous subject of the opening Allegro, and is answered by the strings. The second subject is taken over by the strings while the piano embroiders round it. During the development a lovely melody appears in the viola part, but no further use is made of it. The Adagio is serene, then broken, then calm again, but disturbed in the coda. The Minuet is agitated, but the Trio has a Peasant dance tune, once familiarly known as the Bear's Dance. The final Presto has a strong flavour of opera and pot- pourri, but ends with a fugue on the opening theme of the movement.

Quintet in F minor ||| César Franck Molto moderato quasi lento-Allegro Lento con molto sentimento Allegro non troppo-Con fuoco Composed in 1878, when Franck was 56, the Piano Quintet is, with the Violin and Piano Sonata and the String Quartet, one of the masterpieces of his maturity. As in the other works mentioned, Franck has used the system of cyclic themes, which go to make up the musical foundation of the structure and impart to it unity in variety. An expressive melody hovers over the three movements of the work and gives to it the necessary cohesion. This theme appears early, and settles down as the second main subject of the first movement, in which it plays an important part. It appears in the second movement, strikingly in D major, when the main theme of the movement has been in A minor. Again, at the end of the third movement it binds all together. The beauty of the themes and the masterly skill with which Franck's architecture displays them makes the work a monument of grandeur and strength.