On February 10, Vondelconcerten Amsterdam hosts a very special concert in the beautiful Vondelkerk: Salon Chausson.

The series offers concerts once a month where, during the winter months, music, literature and dance merge in a relaxed setting. Listen to surprising music by some of Europe’s leading musicians and enjoy a bite and drink afterwards. 

For the concert on February 10, Salon Chausson, the audience enters the Belle Epoque and imagines themselves in exotic bustling Paris, straight from the living room of composer Ernest Chausson. 

Latvian star pianist Lauma Skride will be your hostess during this concert. Together with the renowned Ruysdael Quartet and violinist Lisa Jacobs, she will perform the monumental Concerto for Piano, Violin and String Quartet by Ernest Chausson.  

About Chausson’s Concerto for Piano, Violin and String Quartet

Whether this work is truly a concerto is up for debate, since it only involves six musicians. It’s definitely not a standard work for a sextet, with two soloists. The Concerto for Piano, Violin and String Quartet by Chausson is best defined as an exciting conversation between the piano and the violin accompanied by a quartet.

After its premiere in 1892, played by the famous violinist Eugène Ysaÿe, Chausson, ever so insecure of himself, remarked “Another failure!''. Little did he know that his piece would stand the test of time and become an all-time favourite for both musicians and audiences worldwide.  

About the Salon Chausson musicians

The musicians performing Concerto for Piano, Violin and String Quartet by Chausson are outstanding:

Lauma Skride

Lauma Skride's playing is “wonderfully sensitive, with marvellous tone quality, and always with highly virtuosic vigour” (Bayerische Rundfunk). Along with her brilliant technique, these are the qualities with which Lauma Skride captivates audiences on major concert stages throughout the world, both as a soloist and as a chamber musician. 

The Ruysdael Quartet

The Ruysdael Quartet has existed for over 22 years and has been a major force on the Dutch classical music scene. They have been welcome guests at countless chamber music festivals and since 2015, they have been hosting their own annual festival.

Lisa Jacobs

As artistic leader of the Vondelconcerten, violinist Lisa Jacobs, though still only in her early thirties, can already reflect on an extensive worldwide career as both a soloist as well as a chamber musician. She made her orchestral solo debut at the age of 17 with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and has been known ever since for her virtuoso playing style, combined with her unique musicality.

BBC Music Magazine UK praised her "Sensual allure in Jacobs’s deeply felt, beguilingly phrased readings".

Get your tickets

Standard adult tickets cost 17,50, while youth and under 25s pay just 5 euros. You can buy your Salon Chausson tickets on the Vondelconcerten website. 

About the composer Ernest Chausson

Perhaps lesser known than his contemporaries Fauré and Debussy, Chausson left us with a small but influential oeuvre. His composing style of romanticism mixed with some more introverted impressionism is best explained by his upbringing in Paris in an extremely affluent bourgeois family, in which he was the sole surviving child.

To please his father, Chausson studied law and was appointed a barrister for the Court of Appeals but had little or no interest in the profession. He frequented the Paris salons and it was there that he decided that he wanted to pursue a career in music.