Caesar Franck, Richard Strauss

On 5 January 1875, the new opera house designed by Charles Garnier was inaugurated in Paris: an important event in a city so devoted to opera and ballet. In the shortest of times, the new Palais Garnier became the musical epicentre of the French capital. This is not to say that instrumental music was being neglected: since 1828, François Habeneck had been organising the concerts of the Société des concerts du Conservatoire, at which, among other works, the symphonies of Beethoven had been introduced to the French public. And from 1861 onward, Jules Pasdeloup had been organising the Concerts populaires of the Association des concerts Pasdeloup. In contrast, chamber music enjoyed a somewhat lower status in French musical life, and was, for many, synonymous with light salon music, this despite the best efforts of such institutions as the Société des Derniers Quatuors de Beethoven and the Séances populaires de musique de chambre.