ZT: Strauss began writing his only Piano Quartet in the spring of 1884, and he completed it shortly before the work’s premiere at Weimar in December 1885. The piece won Strauss the first prize of 300 marks at a Berlin Composers’ Society competition. That Strauss was proud of his early effort is indicated by the fact that he was still performing it on his 1921 American tour. The Piano Quartet was clearly influenced by the Brahms piano quartets, especially in the first movement Allegro, which displays the same kind of wonderful rhythmic and harmonic shifts, but with an added wistful lyricism that’s clearly a Strauss trademark. As the excellent booklet notes by Walter Werbeck suggest: “The entire work is impressive for the degree of perfection with which Strauss assimilates the Brahmsian sound, without relinquishing his own signature . . . throughout, Strauss shows fascinating confidence in meeting the traditional demands for expressive contrast: vigorous outer movements that climax dramatically, an effervescent scherzo, a broadly lyrical slow movement.”
