Draft:Piano Quartet in A Major (Chausson)

The Piano Quartet in A Major, opus 30, is a musical composition written by the French composer Ernest Chausson in 1897. It is both the final work of absolute music completed by Ernest Chausson and his final completed composition which follows the traditional four-movement structure. Chausson would die in a bicycle accident two years later, leaving his next attempt at each category, the String Quartet, unfinished. Like most piano quartets, the work is written for Piano, Violin, Viola, and Cello.

Structure

The work is set in four movements.

I. Animé

II. Très Calme

III. Simple et sans hâte

IV. Animé

It features Chausson's characteristic cyclic form. For example, the main melody of the second movement returns at the climax of the finale.

A typical performance lasts approximately 40 minutes.

Critical Opinion

Critical opinion on the piece varies. Critic William Bender, in a 2006 issue of the American Record Guide, argues the piece is backwards-looking, writing "But the [piano] quartet... presents a skilled composer unable or unwilling to come to grips with the musical revolution developing around him," concluding this explains its relative "obscurity." Yet, just one year later, in the same publication, critic Elaine Fine praises it as "a work of great emotional breadth and considerable length," noting that the relative obscurity possibly had been caused by a dearth of high-quality recordings. David Denton offers even more effusive acclaim, arguing that the piece "was undoubtedly the culmination of the Romantic era" in French chamber music, calling it "a score of both power and sensual beauty."

In either interpretation, consensus deems that the Chausson Piano Quartet rounds out the three major French works for this ensemble, preceded by the two efforts, premiered in 1880 and 1887 respectively, of Gabriel Faure.