An accomplished pianist herself, Nadezhda von Meck is best known as the generous patron and insightful confidante of Tchaikovsky. After her husband’s death, Madame von Meck managed the business empire they had created, meddled imperiously in the lives of her 11 adult children (two others had died in childhood), and devoted her creative energy to a wide range of musical endeavors.

In the summers from 1880 to 1882, the pianist in von Meck’s musical entourage was a French teenager: Claude Debussy. He taught her children piano, joined her in piano four-hand pieces, and traveled with her to France, Austria, and Italy. Debussy composed his Piano Trio in Fiesole, Italy, in 1880—“masterfully written,” as von Meck proudly informed Tchaikovsky—to play with his Meck colleagues. It was not published until 1986, however, after the autograph score was discovered in the papers of one of Debussy’s students. It bears a dedication—“lots of notes accompanied by lots of friendship”—to Émile Durand, one of Debussy’s professors at the Paris Conservatory.

This Piano Trio and a Symphony in B minor, also from 1880, were his first extended works, and the youthfulness shows. Some of the shape-shifting aspects of form and the restless chromatic harmonies reveal the influence of Franck, while the exuberance of the Finale invokes Schumann at his most extroverted.

But there are also clear premonitions of Debussy’s individuality and mature style, particularly in rhythmic fluidity and the sound signature of the trio’s textures and chord spacing. That is most evident in the inner movements. The episodic Scherzo–Intermezzo dances eerily, highly original in both plan and detail, but also hinting at Russian elements. The Andante espressivo sings a somber, reflective ballad, made more impactful by its restraint.

-John Henken