Our program features two Czech masterworks for piano quartet. A little over fifty years and two world wars separate Dvořák’s Piano Quartet in E-flat, Op. 87 (1889), and Bohuslav Martinů’s only Piano Quartet (1942), but they share a Czech spirit. Closing out our year of celebrating Gabriel Fauré will be a performance of one of the composer’s last works, the Second Cello Sonata, Op. 117 (1921).
The Ives Collective, formed in 2015 by Co-Artistic Directors Susan Freier and Stephen Harrison, following the disbanding of the Ives Quartet, is comprised of an impressive and ever evolving roster of musicians who bring together careers worth of experience at great music making organizations such as at the San Francisco Symphony, San Francisco Opera, San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, New Century Chamber Orchestra, the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Opera Parallèle, and various university faculties and festivals.
At the core of the Collective’s inspiration is its members’ joy in playing richly varied chamber repertoire with longtime friends and colleagues for eager concert attendees. Its roster allows for the programming of virtually all the core string, wind, vocal and piano chamber music repertoire—from vocal duos to clarinet quintets to wind and string octets. While all its members have independent careers as ensemble members, soloists and chamber musicians, they strive for every opportunity to come together and share in this special collaboration aimed at presenting powerful live music experiences through fresh and informed interpretations of established masterworks and under-appreciated gems.