Tuesday, January 12, 2027: Balourdet Quartet, Asiya Korepanova, Piano & Arnaud Sussmann, Violin

Two masterpieces of French chamber music at the height of the Belle Époque.

Composed within little more than a decade of one another, Ernest Chausson's Concerto for Violin, Piano, and String Quartet and César Franck's Piano Quintet in F minor stand among the most ambitious achievements of the French chamber music tradition. Both works combine expansive Romantic expression with the cyclical forms and richly chromatic harmonies that became hallmarks of the French school in the late nineteenth century. Chausson's unique concerto blends the intimacy of chamber music with the virtuosity of a concerto, while Franck's passionate quintet unfolds with remarkable emotional intensity and structural unity. Performed by the Balourdet Quartet together with pianist Asiya Korepanova and violinist Arnaud Sussmann, this program celebrates two composers whose works helped define a distinctive French voice in chamber music.