ABSTRACT
French music journals and catalogues of the early part of the nineteenth century carried many advertisements for the latest duo sonatas, trios or larger ensemble works by French and foreign composers. This chapter shows that Charles Valentin Alkan's finest chamber music can easily stand comparison with that of the German masters. The Grand Duofor piano and violin op 21 published in 1840 as Alkan's earliest chamber work is the first really balanced romantic violin and piano sonata of the French romantic era. Piano trios were popular with early-nineteenth-century Parisian audiences. The sustained string writing and intense piano interruptions point the way forward to Ives' Unanswered Question. All Alkan's chamber works are substantial ones with demanding piano and string parts and should be in the repertoire of all imaginative chamber musicians. In rhythmic activity Alkan's movement is akin to Robert Schumann's whirlwind sonata finales but Schumann never ventured into such rhythmic dislocation.
