COMPOSER’S REVENGE ON PIANISTS
BERKELEY—The composer got his fiendish revenge on star pianists, and the music world will never again be quite the same. Composers like Frenchman Ernest Chausson would labor weeks over a new piece, then be tucked away in the audience while the pianist/performer reaps plaudits and encores at center stage. He avenged the keyboardists with his piece de resistance, his Concert (sextet), Op. 21, for two soloists and string quartet. It relegates one seated soloist to be buried at the keyboard,…