Music for Violin and Piano in the Late Nineteenth Century
The repertory of music for violin and piano gained important works in the second half of the century, thanks especially to the new Société nationale de musique.
In the earlier nineteenth century, violinists from all over Europe flocked had to Paris to study with Baillot, Rode, Kreutzer, and Habeneck. In later decades, too, the Paris Conservatoire attracted violin students seeking instruction from Alard (professor from 1843 to 1875), Massart (from 1843 to 1890), Dancla (1860–92), and Marsick (1882–1900). The repertory of music for violin and piano gained important works in the second half of the century, thanks especially to the new Société nationale de musique. In the genre of the violin sonata, Lalo, following Onslow, appears as a pioneer with his opus 12 (1853), followed by Godard (author of five violin sonatas between 1866 and 1883), Castillon (1870), Fauré (1876), Gouvy (c. 1877), Saint-Saëns (1885, 1896), Franck (1886), Lekeu (1892), and Lazzari (1894). Alongside these multi-movement works, standalone pieces (such as Fauré’s Romance, Berceuse, and Andante and Saint-Saëns’ Berceuse) allowed instrumentalists to display their virtuosity or their mastery of cantabile. With this diverse repertoire, the violin consolidated its dominance of both the bourgeois salon and the grand concert hall.
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Related works
Berceuse for violin and piano
Fernand de LA TOMBELLE
Clair de lune for violon and piano
Fernand de LA TOMBELLE
Cortège
Lili BOULANGER
Élégie in F major for violin and piano op. 160
Camille SAINT-SAËNS
Élégie in D major for violin and piano op. 143
Camille SAINT-SAËNS
Fantaisie pour violon
Lucien HILLEMACHER Paul HILLEMACHER
Fantaisie-Impromptu pour violon et piano op. 4
Gabriel PIERNÉ
Guitare
Édouard LALO
Journée de printemps [Spring Day]
Gabriel DUPONT
Nocturne pour violon et piano
Reynaldo HAHN
Pièce en forme de habanera
Maurice RAVEL
Poème
Ernest CHAUSSON
Prière
Fernand HALPHEN
Romance en fa pour violon et piano
Alfred BRUNEAU
Romance-Sérénade pour violon et piano
Édouard LALO
Scherzo et Nocturne
Claude DEBUSSY
Sérénade op. 7
Gabriel PIERNÉ
Sonata for piano and violin in G
Guillaume LEKEU
Sonate en ut pour violon et piano op. 59
Vincent d' INDY
Sonata no.1 for piano and violin, known as “posthumous”
Maurice RAVEL
Sonata for violin and piano no. 1
Benjamin GODARD
Sonata for violin and piano no. 2
Benjamin GODARD
Sonata for violin and piano no. 3
Benjamin GODARD
Sonata for violin and piano no. 4
Benjamin GODARD
Sonata for violin and piano
Claude DEBUSSY
Sonata for violin and piano in A major
César FRANCK
Sonata for violin and piano in D major op. 12
Édouard LALO
Sonata for violin and piano in G minor
Louis VIERNE
Sonata for violin and piano no. 1 in D minor op. 75
Camille SAINT-SAËNS
Sonata for violin and piano no. 1
Gabriel FAURÉ
Sonate pour violon et piano no 2
Gabriel FAURÉ
Sonata for violin and piano op. 40
Fernand de LA TOMBELLE
Sonate pour violon et piano
Théodore DUBOIS
Sonate pour violon et piano
Mel BONIS
Suite in C major for violin and piano
Mel BONIS
Tryptique op. 136
Camille SAINT-SAËNS
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publication date : 17/06/25
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