ESTHER COLEMAN (contralto)
THE REGINALD PAUL
PIANOFORTE QUARTET:
George Stratton (violin) ; Watson Forbes (viola); John Moore (violoncello) ; Reginald Paul (pianoforte)
Josef Suk is one of the leading Czech composers and, since its foundation in 1892, has played the violin in the Bohemian String Quartet. Born in 1874, he studied piano, violin, and composition at the Prague Conservatoire, his professor of composition being Dvorak, whose daughter he married. Suk himself has a composition class at the Conservatoire, of which he is also Director.
The Pianoforte Quartet in A dates from 1860 when Brahms was twenty-seven years of age. It is a very beautiful work, less serious in character than its companion quartet in G minor. Brahms's admiration for Mendelssohn is well known, and it is interesting to note that there is a curious melodic similarity between the first tune of the Scherzo of the A major Quartet and that of the Scherzo of Mendelssohn's Piano Trio in D minor. Possibly, Brahms intended it to be a graceful compliment.