Brahms and Price

OSL’s Chamber Music Series season opens with a celebration of the expressive depth of chamber music for strings. In an effort to separate himself from the ever-present shadow of Beethoven, a young Johannes Brahms decided to take a compositional risk with his Sextet No. 1 in B-flat Major, expanding the string quartet to include an additional cello and viola. The risk paid off with an immediate positive reception, so evidenced by composer Clara Schumann’s remarks of the piece when she attended its premiere in 1860, “it was even more beautiful than I had anticipated, and my expectations were already high.” Modeled after her wildly successful First Symphony, Florence Price’s String Quartet No. 2 in A minor shines with romantic chromaticism and Price’s expert integration of African American Folk vernacular. Her powerful use of the quartet medium establishes her as one of the compositional greats of the 20th century.