French Piano Trios

Claude Debussy (1862 - 1918)
Piano Trio in G major
Maurice Ravel (1875 - 1937)
Piano Trio in A minor
Florent Schmitt (1870 - 1958)
Très lent

The names of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel have often been coupled, classified together, in spite of the marked difference in their characters and in their musical styles and of a later coolness that sprang up between them, fomented by critics who insisted on comparisons in one way or another invidious. The older of the two, Debussy, was born in 1862, the son of a shop-keeper. In 1872 he entered the Conservatoire, where he eventually abandoned the plan, supported by his generally shiftless father, of becoming a concert pianist, turning his attention to composition. In 1884 he won the Prix de Rome and the following year took up obligatory residence at the Villa Medici in Rome, in accordance with the terms of the prize. By 1887 he was back in Paris, winning his first significan