Towards the end of the 19th century, France saw a renaissance for chamber music, perpetuated not by popular demand but by the composers themselves. An...

Towards the end of the 19th century, France saw a renaissance for chamber music, perpetuated not by popular demand but by the composers themselves. An early response to Saint-Saëns' initiative came from a former student, Gabriel Fauré, who completed his Violin Sonata in A Major and gave it the opus number 13, making it the first instrumental work in his official work list.