Paris Piano Trio Discography

Ludwig van Beethoven: Trio in G major, Op. 1, No. 2 -
     IV. Finale: Presto
Ernest Chausson: Trio in g minor, Op. 3-III. Assez lent
Maurice Ravel: Trio in a minor

Ernest Chausson (1855-1899)
Born in Paris in 1855 to a well-to-do family, composer Ernest Chausson came to music somewhat later in life. As a child he studied art and literature with his tutor, and attended many Parisian salons, where he was exposed to the music of the great Romantics - Schubert, Schumann, and Mendelssohn - but his first inclination was to pursue a career in literature or art. His family pressured him to pursue a more solid career, however, and Chausson, after obtaining first a bachelor's and then a doctoral degree in law, was sworn in as a barrister in 1877. He never practiced, however, and began, in that same year, to compose.

Chausson entered the Paris Conservatory in the autumn of 1879 and began studying instrumentation with Jules Massenet and then Cesar Franck, whose mystical, richly-harmonic style was to have a formative influence on his music - in fact, Franck himself acknowledged that Chausson was his most prominent and promising students. Chausson was also heavily influenced by Wagner's dramatic orchestrations and the use of leitmotifs, although he later advocated a "de-Wagnerization" of French music in favor of a more classical style. In his later years (he died prematurely at the age of 44 in a cycling accident) he sought to revive interest in classical forms, especially chamber music. Chausson's passionate and complex Trio in g minor, Op. 3, written in 1882 when he was 27, reflects Chausson's earlier fascination with Wagner's romanticism.