This week Bill broadens his considerations of the string quartet with an emphasis on lesser-known, late-19th century composers. He begins with Poème for violin and piano by Czech composer Zdeněk Fibich. Bill says “the music is familiar but the composer maybe not so familiar”: Poème was the score for one of the first choreographies by George Balanchine. Fibich was among the European composers born in the 1850s and 1860s such as Hugo Wolf, Vincent d’Indy, and Ernest Chausson. And, Bill adds another contemporary of this group, American (New England) composer Amy Beach.
String Quartets from Fibich to Sibelius
