Piano Quartet op. 7

The Piano Quartet in G minor, opus 7, remains one of Alexis de Castillon’s most successful works. Dedicated to Anton Rubinstein, it was premiered on 23 December 1869 in Pau, where the composer, still not well-known by Parisian audiences, spent each winter. The work was published in 1871 and was a huge success when performed by Henri Fissot and the Quatuor Armingaud at the Société Nationale de Musique in February 1872. Despite a difficult Parisian season, Castillon was able to establish a reputation for himself as a chamber music composer with this quartet. The first movement begins with a solemn, slow introduction based on a generative motif, which leads into a more fiery allegro, also derived from the initial cell. The second movement—scherzando—is more like a minuet, whose elegant rhythm is continually disrupted by an interplay of displaced stresses and intermittent interjections by the strings. The following larghetto—quasi marcia religiosa—seems to be pervaded by memories of the funeral march from Schumann’s Opus 44 Quintet. With its intense lyricism and impassioned, stirring themes, this movement was an immediate success with audiences. The opening phrase, which is given to the cello, unfurls over the piano’s spare harmonies, while the second section’s espressivo melody in ternary rhythm is reserved for the viola. The end of the movement is left unresolved and leads directly into the finale. The underlying tempo of this allegro, which Vincent d’Indy described as “strangely conceived”, gradually accelerates to the end.