The piano quartet was very popular in France in the second half of the nineteenth century. Initially composers were inspired by the works of Mendelssohn and Schumann, but later a typically French form emerged, under the influence of Camille Saint-Saëns and Gabriel Fauré in particular. When Marie Jaëll decided to set aside her career as a virtuoso in order to devote herself to composition, she naturally turned to the piano quartet. Rita Strohl followed suit, composing her piano quartet when she was only twenty years old.
