Violin-piano, in the heart, in the distance

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As the composer in 1885 of one of the most famous sonatas for violin and piano of his time – which inspired in particular Proust’s famous “little phrase” in Vinteuil’s sonata – one could have imagined Camille Saint-Saëns later ensconced in the comfort of this success. But only if one hardly knew him. A tireless traveller and inveterate experimenter, he followed different paths to explore the violin-piano partnership in novel ways, as evidenced by the catalogue of his works, from his free improvisational pieces to the exoticism of his Havanaise. Breaking with Parisian academism, Maurice Ravel did something quite similar when he drew inspiration from the Transatlantic blues for his own sonata.