Mel Bonis (1858-1937) was a great musical talent and a sensitive soul, the child of a socially aspiring family who forbid their daughter to marry the love of her life. Forced into a utilitarian marriage with a respectable husband, she later had an affair with her first sweetheart after all — the stuff of a sentimental novel. Yet she was …

In a program teeming with contrasts and discoveries, Trio Wanderer (violinist Jean-Marc Phillips-Varjabédian, cellist Raphaël Pidoux, and pianist Vincent Coq) explores French chamber music around the year 1900. The ardent lyricism of Édouard Lalo is represented by his Piano Trio No. 3. Maurice Ravel’s shimmering can be heard in his Piano Trio and his Sonata for Violin and Cello. The …

The Neave Trio explores the power and majesty of the ocean as the inspiration behind their newest album of French works for piano trio. La Mer includes: Trio No. 2, Op. 92 in E minor by Camille Saint-Saëns; Soir-Matin, Op. 76 by Mel Bonis; and La Mer by Claude Debussy, arranged by Sally Beamish. “La Mer is a meditation on …

This release from CPO marks two important anniversaries – the 150th anniversary of the death of French composer Louise Farrenc and the 75th birthday of Russian composer Elena Firsova. The USSR-born, UK-based composer’s piano quartet, now ten years old, is the centerpiece of this recording. For her piano quintet, Farrenc adopted the unusual scoring of her piano quintet from her …