Concert

Chausson’s Concert in D major, written for the unusual combination of piano, violin and string quartet, was composed between 1889 and 1891. Dedicated to his friend, the Belgian violin virtuoso Eugène Ysaÿe, it was premièred on 26 February 1892 in Brussels. Paris discovered the work a few months later (11 May, Salle Pleyel) played by the same musicians, the Ysaÿe Quartet with Auguste Pierret (piano) and Alfred Marchot (violin). The work was a resounding success.The titlerecalls the Baroque concerto grosso, in which the musical material is passed between the concertino and the ripieno – here between the piano and violin and the quartet. But it also refers to the French concerto of the eighteenth century: Chausson was fond of the music of that time, and especially Couperin and Rameau. These influences can be perceived both in the form of the Concert and in the cohesion of its discourse and its melodic ideas. In the opening movement, Decidé, the first three repeated chords establish the rhythm, and soon a motif appears that is used to link the movements. A sonata form then opposes two themes, the one animated, the other more dreamy. The Sicilienne, crystalline and elegant, begins with a fine melody for the violin, which is taken up tenderly by the piano. Sombre from the outset, the beautiful third movement, Grave, begins with a profound dialogue between the violin and the stark chromatic line of the piano, before the quartet enters, reinforcing the pessimism. The finale, Très animé, pulsating with energy, returns to the principal elements already heard in the preceding pages and ends the work in a mood of brightness and hope.