Jean Françaix’s mother was a singer and his father was the director of the Le Mans Conservatory as well as a composer, pianist, and musicologist. The child Françaix clearly had a musical gift, and by his teen years he was already a pupil of the famous teacher Nadia Boulanger. As a young adult, Françaix was acclaimed as both composer and pianist, winning a first prize at the Paris Conservatoire and giving successful premieres of most of his works. His career as a composer-pianist eventually took him to Berlin, London, and New York among other cities. Françaix wrote ballets, operas, numerous works for piano, symphonic pieces, and much music for winds, such as the Trio for Clarinet, Viola and Piano of 1990.
Françaix is often associated with the French neo-classical school of composition, a term that describes the late nineteenth and early twentieth century French composers who looked back to earlier French composers for influence instead of exploring the modernist techniques developing in the twentieth century. Françaix’s self-stated goal of giving pleasure through composing is reflected in his vivacious, humorous, colorful musical style. His skill in orchestration shines in various arrangements of works by Chopin, Mozart and Poulenc (by Poulenc’s request) in addition to arrangements of his own works.
The Trio for Clarinet, Viola, and Piano is in five rather brief movements that explore the different colors, ranges and technical possibilities of all three instruments. This combination of instruments was also used by Mozart in his famous Kegelstatt Trio and in works by Robert Schumann and Gyorgy Kurtag. The sound produced by this combination is unique in that both the clarinet and viola have roughly the same range of notes, yet have distinctive, contrasting colors. Françaix plays off of both of these elements in passages such as the opening of the second movement and dove-tailing lines that pass between the two instruments throughout the work.
-- Kyle Blaha