Faure Piano Quartet no. 1, Op. 15

Gabriel Fauré's Piano Quartet no. 1 in C minor, Op. 15, is one the two chamber works he composed for the conventional piano quartet combination of piano, violin, viola and cello. The work follows the conventional layout of the genre, with four movements of roughly similar proportions. It was written between the years 1876 and 1879 and it has been observed that the nature of the music reflects Fauré's turbulent personal life at the moment (he started writing the quartet while in the later stages of his relationship with Marianne Viardot, daughter of singer Pauline Viardot). Fauré revised the work in 1883, completely rewriting the finale, even though the work had been premiered 3 years earlier. The original finale has not survived, and it may have been destroyed by Fauré himself.