The piano quartet, Baba O’Riley, was written for the Flex Ensemble based in Hannover Germany. Written in four movements, the work enjoys the sense of mischief and theatre which I experienced while getting to know the ensemble’s performance history.

The first movement is a stately dance performed by marionettes. The music is meant to communicate in the manner of a player-piano. Each instrumental part has a repetitive motif, weaving a tapestry of changing combinations. The piano middle-staff is a rhythmic figure acting like a guide for all the other parts. Each part has its own character, the cello mumbles and sulks with no melodic material, the viola and violin are in a quietly giddy conversation, both with similar material but played in different registers. The movement ends abruptly, the player-piano roll has ended.

The second movement is a lively music-box waltz. The violin plays a continuous, happy, alpine folk-music melody with repetitive Fritz Kreisler Viennese figures. The piano, cello and viola are the delicate but sharp rhythmic clicks and clacks of the music-box. The violin’s fluent line is contrasted by the simplicity of the piano. The dance ends, but there is a coda, with the violin now playing a contemplative version of the earlier happy melody.

The third movement is in three parts. Each is a dance, performed discreetly and quietly. The piano becomes increasingly more delicate, with the string parts moving from a skipping 6/8 roundel to a quiet pizzicato section, ending with a long, drawn out and barely audible gossamer legato texture.

In the fourth movement, the piano takes the role of an upright piano in a small dance hall, pretending to play in a Hammerklavier manner to accompany a group of rowdy characters. The violin, viola and cello are each dancers with their own eccentric way of moving about the room, each with their own repetitive skips and tricks. The violin suddenly turns into a singer and belts out a very high note while the piano keeps chugging along. As the piece winds down in sections, the cello abruptly remembers something it meant to say in the beginning.

The title may suggest this piece is an homage to the well known tune by the British Rock group The Who. It isn’t. The band named their song Baba O’Riley, in part, as tribute to the wonderful composer, Terry Riley, a sentiment I share. But that aside, some pieces seem to name themselves, and this name simply seemed the right title for this piano quartet.