Ernest Chausson was a French composer of the late Romantic period, born and based in Paris, where he studied with Jules Massenet and César Franck and hosted leading artists at his home near Parc Monceau. He composed selectively, producing only 39 opus-numbered works, including songs, the opera Le roi Arthus, a symphony, symphonic poems, and the Poème for violin and orchestra. At 44, while cycling downhill at his country estate near Limay, he struck a wall and died instantly, in June 1899.

As secretary of the Société Nationale de Musique from 1886 to 1899, Chausson played an influential role in fostering French musical life during a formative period for the nation’s concert repertoire, and his own music forms a bridge between the Romanticism of his teachers Massenet and Franck and the emerging Impressionism of Debussy and Ravel. Though his output remains small owing to his early death, works such as the Poème and the Symphony in B-flat major retain a firm place in the concert repertoire.

Sources:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Chausson