Paris has long been a hub for composers who infused their chamber music with rich textures and emotional depth, from Saint-Saëns’ elegantly crafted trio to Fauré’s dramatic piano quartet. This program celebrates these French masters, offering a journey through vibrant melodies and poignant harmonies. Saint-Saëns’ Trio No. 1 captures youthful vitality, while Vieuxtemps’ Viola Sonata is filled with lyrical beauty, evoking both grace and introspection. Fauré’s Piano Quartet No. 1, with its sweeping emotional range, brings this program to a powerful close, showcasing the full breadth of French Romanticism. Together, these works reveal the enduring allure of 19th-century French chamber music.
Program
Camille Saint-Saëns
(1835–1921)Trio No. 1 in F major for Piano, Violin, and Cello, Op. 18
(1864)Henri Vieuxtemps
(1820–1881)Sonata in B-flat major for Viola and Piano, Op. 36
(1863)Gabriel Fauré
(1845–1924)Quartet No. 1 in C minor for Piano, Violin, Viola, and Cello, Op. 15
(1876–79)
Orion Weiss
Lun Li
Matthew Lipman
David Requiro
One of the most sought-after soloists and chamber music collaborators of his generation, Orion Weiss is widely regarded as a “brilliant pianist” (New York Times) with “powerful technique and exceptional insight” (Washington Post). He has performed with dozens of orchestras in North America including the Chicago Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Boston Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and New York Philharmonic and at major venues and festivals worldwide.
Known for his affinity for chamber music, Weiss performs regularly with violinists Augustin Hadelichand James Ehnes; pianists Michael Brown and Shai Wosner; and the Ariel, Parker, and Pacifica Quartets. In recent seasons, he has also performed with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, National Arts Centre Orchestra, and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Weiss can be heard on the Naxos, Telos, Bridge, First Hand, Yarlung, and Artek labels.
Weiss has been awarded the Classical Recording Foundation’s Young Artist of the Year, Gilmore Young Artist Award, an Avery Fisher Career Grant, and the Mieczyslaw Munz Scholarship. A native of Ohio, Weiss attended the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Juilliard School, where he studied with Emanuel Ax.
Violinist Lun Li, a native of Shanghai based in New York, is the First Prize winner of the 2021 Young Concert Artists Susan Wadsworth International Auditions. He has appeared on major stages including Carnegie Hall, Helsinki Music Center, Konzerthaus Berlin, Kulturpalast Dresden, Wiener Konzerthaus, and Verizon Hall, and has recently made recital and concerto debuts at Merkin Hall, the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, the Tokyo Symphony, the Osaka Symphony, and the Kyoto Symphony. An avid chamber musician, he has performed at the Marlboro, Music@Menlo, Verbier, Tippet Rise, Newport, and Bard music festivals. A member of CMS’s Bowers Program, Li holds degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music and the Juilliard School, where his teachers included Ida Kavafian, Catherine Cho, and Joseph Lin. He plays the 1735 “Samazeuilh” Stradivarius, on loan from the Nippon Music Foundation.
American violist Matthew Lipman, recognized by the New York Times for his “rich tone and elegant phrasing,” has made recent appearances with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, American Symphony Orchestra, Munich Symphony Orchestra, and Minnesota Orchestra; and at Carnegie Hall, Vienna Musikverein, Berlin Philharmonie, and the Zürich Tonhalle. He made his recording debut with Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and has since recorded on Sony and Deutsche Grammophon. Lipman has premiered works by Clarice Assad, Andreia Pinto Correia, Joel Thompson, and John Williams, and made his film debut in A. Rimbaud, playing the role of Paul Verlaine. He is an alum of CMS’s Bowers Program and the recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant. Lipman is on faculty at Stony Brook University and is a visiting professor at Juilliard.
First Prize winner of the 2008 Naumburg International Violoncello Competition, David Requiro (pronounced re-KEER-oh) is recognized as one of today’s finest American cellists. After winning First Prize in both the Washington International and Irving M. Klein International String Competitions, he captured a top prize at the Gaspar Cassadó International Violoncello Competition in Hachioji, Japan, coupled with the prize for the best performances of works by Cassadó. He has appeared as soloist with the Tokyo Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, and numerous orchestras across North America. His Carnegie Hall debut recital at Weill Hall was followed by a critically acclaimed San Francisco Performances recital at the Herbst Theatre. Soon after making his Kennedy Center debut, he completed a cycle of Beethoven’s cello sonatas at the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC. An alum of CMS’s Bowers Program, he has performed with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Seattle Chamber Music Society, Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players, and is a founding member of the Baumer String Quartet. Mr. Requiro serves as Associate Professor of Cello at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he joined faculty in 2015. He has previously served as Artist-in-Residence at the University of Puget Sound and Guest Lecturer at the University of Michigan. His teachers have included Milly Rosner, Bonnie Hampton, Mark Churchill, Michel Strauss, and Richard Aaron.