Synopsis

On today’s date in 1908, the Hoffman String Quartet gave a recital at Boston’s Potter Hall, opening their program with a Romantic classic, Robert Schumann’s String Quartet from 1842, followed by much more modern fare — Debussy’s String Quartet written in 1893.

And to close their program, the Hoffman Quartet premiered a brand-new contemporary work: a piano quintet by American composer Amy Beach, with the composer at the piano.

The Boston Globe’s critic noted “the audience was of goodly proportions and very demonstrative in its appreciation of Mrs. Beach’s composition,” but (critics being critics), did a little nit-picking, concluding, “The work is thoroughly good, though a little too choppy at times.”

The critic from The Boston Evening Transcript had fewer nits to pick, writing: “The quintet begins in the luminous key of F-sharp minor, and throughout Mrs. Beach modulates freely … [she] has sought a modern sonority of utterance … Her rhythms spurred the ear, and her harmonies [have] tang and fancy … In imagination, feeling, and expression, it is distinctly rhapsodic. Mrs. Beach can think musically in truly songful melodies, and such are the themes of her new quintet.”

Music Played in Today's Program

Amy Beach (1867-1944): Piano Quintet; Garrick Ohlsson, piano; Takács Quartet; Hyperion CDA-68295