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In the domain of chamber music, César Franck is mainly remembered for his three mature masterpieces: the Violin Sonata, the Piano Quintet and the String Quartet. However, right from his early days in Paris, the young piano virtuoso wrote and performed a number of compositions, chiefly keyboard trios, which were published as his op. 1 and earned him a favourable opinion from Franz Liszt! The masters of the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel and their artists in residence now invite us to enjoy the first complete recording of this set.

Rebecca Taio’s choice to programme these well-known pieces from the great repertoire for violin and piano has to do with the technical challenges they pose, both instrumentally and interpretatively. In the flautist’s words: ‘It’s an incredibly fascinating and stimulating idea for me to try out timbres that are different to the ones I’m usually accustomed to, different to those the majority of composers who have written for the flute have been inspired by. In these transcriptions I have aimed for a more romantic and less delicate way of playing the flute, inspired by the long-drawn-out, sustained phrases and intense vibrato so characteristic of string instruments in this sort of repertoire.’