String Quartet op. 121

Composed in 1923-24 and dedicated to the music critic Camille Bellaigue, Fauré’s String Quartet in E minor, op. 121, was premièred at the Paris Conservatoire on 12 June 1925, a few months after the composer’s death. Fauré had always felt apprehensive at the idea of composing a string quartet – not surprisingly considering the genre was overshadowed by Beethoven throughout the nineteenth century. Opus 121 is his only string quartet, and his last composition. The first of the three movements, melancholy in mood, is in free sonata form, with two developments (one at the end of the exposition, the other at the end of the recapitulation, before the coda). The first theme takes the form of an exchange of questions and answers between the (tense) viola and the (calmer) violin. The second theme is stated cantando on the first violin. Both phrases are then used to build up the contrapuntal development. In the recapitulation the second theme is heard in the bright key of E major, which illuminates the terminal development. The work’s centre of gravity, the Andante, presents a soaring theme stated on the first violin, followed by an ascending melody taken by the viola, then the violin, over repeated quavers from the other instruments. The exposition of this ternary form, also borrowing from rondo form, ends with a melancholy motif from the viola. The whole of this movement, with its extremely refined orchestration and harmonies, is imbued with a gentle expressiveness that has led some commentators to see it as the composer’s “swan song”. This brief quartet ends on an Allegro, with a theme-refrain in folk style, stated first on the cello.