Imperial trios

In early nineteenth-century France, the string trio was a rare ensemble, which therefore only exceptionally inspired composers. When the young Boëly wrote his first three string trios in 1808 (at the age of twenty), he was above all following in the footsteps of the Viennese masters, echoing in Paris the contemporary advances of Haydn and Beethoven. Perhaps he also had in mind the six trios composed by Hyacinthe Jadin at the end of the previous century, which had been momentarily forgotten after the composer’s premature death (in 1800). Despite these two dazzling breakthroughs, the trio still had to wait several more decades before establishing itself in France as an essential genre.