Like in Vienna

When Anton (later Antoine) Reicha moved to Paris early in the nineteenth century, he wanted to be instrumental in the development of a new chamber music repertoire, similar to the one whose birth he had witnessed during his stay in Vienna. In Austria and Germany, Haydn first of all, followed by Mozart and Beethoven, then Mendelssohn, Schubert and Schumann, had taken up the piano trio, which had thus become an indispensable genre.

Despite Reicha’s ambitions, few French composers ventured down that path, preferring virtuoso pieces that were not conceived in accordance with the Viennese principles. Little-known in their time and performed mainly in private settings, the trios of Reicha and Onslow nevertheless show that the French school was capable of producing some fine works in that genre.