Ernest Chausson was born as the only son of a building contractor that was working for the redevelopment of Paris in the 1850s, the famous Haussmann projects that resulted in the broad boulevards. His style is romantic, as is clear in this piece: a concert for piano, violin and string quartet. We might also call this a piano sextet.
Quite a beautiful piece, reminiscent of the great French impressionist composers Fauré and Debussy. Chausson was a friend of Debussy, although that friendship ended because Chausson didn’t much appreciate his friends free and easy attitude towards women. Debussy had an affair with a singer and publicly announced their engagement.
At 44 Chausson drove himself into a brick wall on a bike and instantly died. Rumour was that it actually was suicide, as the composer suffered from depressions. He left us a small number of 39 opus numbers.