Piano Trio in G minor, Op. 3

• Date: 1881
• Composer: Ernest Chausson
• Period: Romantic (1820-1869)

Review

The sheer range of Chausson's talents bewildered him, causing him to hesitate before choosing a career. Heeding his father's advice, he completed law degrees in 1877. Good at drawing, many of his friends were artists. At Madame de Rayssac's fashionable salon he played piano duets -- the music of Bach and Beethoven -- with Odilon Redon. But, moved by Turgenev, he also wrote a novel during the years of indecision, while he composed such ambitious works as La veuve du roi basque, for soloists, chorus, and orchestra and the powerful Baudelaire setting, L'Albatros, both 1879 -- the year in which he heard Der fliegende Holländer and the Ring in Munich. Befitting the scion of a wealthy family, he took private composition lessons with Massenet before officially becoming his pupil at the Conservatoire in October 1879, though his visits, as an auditor, to Franck's organ (and unofficial composition) class struck far more deeply -- the latter becoming Chausson's friend and mentor. In May 1881 Chausson submitted the preliminary fugue for admission to the Prix de Rome competition, though the required choral setting was rejected. With exquisite courtesy, he remained in Massenet's class until the end of term, June 27. On his file Massenet has crossed out his name in red with the notation, "After his failure to gain admission to the Prix de Rome competition, he wanted nothing more to do with the Conservatoire. Very intelligent. Independent." The last word is underlined. Chausson described this setback as a mere "scratch," though the Rome competition would have meant confirmation of his hesitantly chosen path, vindication before his family, and public recognition. Stung, he began composition of his first major work, the Piano Trio, immediately after leaving Massenet's class, completing it on holiday in Montbovon, Switzerland, in mid-September. Though previous works revealed Chausson's characteristic manic/depressive strain, the Trio is its first exposure on a grand scale and with architectonic import, and it is a marked departure from the salon charm and seventh-chord melodramatics of the Andante et Allegro for clarinet and piano, composed the previous spring. The Trio is Chausson at nearly full strength -- his peculiar lyric profile, abundantly rich invention through four compelling movements, and Franck-like penchant for modulation fulfilling a narrative function (as the melancholy ache of the work's opening eclipses the joyousness of the skipping last movement with sudden shudder) are all in place and deftly worked. It was premiered at a Société Nationale de Musique concert on April 8, 1882, with Messager at the piano. ~ Adrian Corleonis, Rovi

Albums with Complete Performances of the Work

Title	Date
Chausson, Ravel: Trios avec Piano	2008
Chausson: Concert for Violin, Piano & String Quartet; Piano Trio	2011
Chausson: Piano Quartet & Trio	2005
Chausson: Piano Trio, Op. 3 / Tchaikovsky: Piano Trio, Op. 50	2001
Chausson: Poème; Piano Trio; Pièce; Andante and Allegro	1998
Chausson: Trio & Quatuor Pour Piano
Debussy: Sonata for cello in Dm; Chausson: Trio in Gm
Ernest Chausson: Chamber Music	2007
French Piano Trios	2011
Piano Trios by Ravel & Chausson	1999
Ravel, Chausson: Piano Trios	1999
Ravel, Chausson: Piano Trios	2005
Ravel, Chausson: Piano Trios
Ravel, Chausson: Piano Trios
Ravel: Piano Trio in A minor; Chausson: Trio in Gm
Wiener Schubert Trio Performs Chausson, Debussy & Rachmaninov	2011

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