Piano music of Gabriel Fauré
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The French composer Gabriel Fauré
(1845–1924) wrote in many genres, including songs, chamber music, orchestral pieces and choral works. Among his best-known compositions are those for piano, written between the 1860s and the 1920s.
Fauré's major sets of piano works are 13 nocturne
s, 13 barcarolle
s, six impromptu
s and four valses-caprices. These sets were composed during several decades in his long career, and display the change in his style from uncomplicated youthful charm to a final enigmatic introspection, by way of a turbulent period in his middle years. His other notable piano pieces, including shorter works, or collections composed or published as a set, are Romances sans paroles, Ballade in F major, Mazurka
in B major, Thème et variations in C major, and Huit pièces brèves. For piano duet, Fauré composed the Dolly Suite
and, together with his friend and former pupil André Messager
, an exuberant parody of Wagner
in the short suite Souvenirs de Bayreuth.
Much of Fauré's piano music is difficult to play, but it is rarely virtuoso in style. The composer disliked showy display, and the predominant characteristic of his piano music is a classical restraint and understatement.
found Fauré's music hard to play: at his first attempt he said to Fauré, "I've run out of fingers". This difficulty was largely because the composer's years as an organist influenced the way he laid out his keyboard works, often using arpeggiated
figures, with themes distributed between the two hands, requiring fingerings more natural for organists than pianists. This tendency may have been even stronger because Fauré was ambidextrous, and he was not always inclined to follow the convention that the melody is in the right hand and the accompaniment in the left. His old friend and former teacher Camille Saint-Saëns
wrote to him in 1917, "Ah! if there is a god for the left hand, I should very much like to know him and make him an offering when I am disposed to play your music; the 2nd Valse-Caprice is terrible in this respect; I have however managed to get to the end of it by dint of absolute determination."
As a man, Fauré was said to possess "that mysterious gift that no other can replace or surpass: charm", and charm is a conspicuous feature of many of his early compositions. His early piano works are influenced in style by Chopin
, and throughout his life he composed piano works using similar titles to those of Chopin, notably nocturnes
and barcarolle
s. An even greater influence was Schumann
, whose piano music Fauré loved more than any other. The authors of The Record Guide
(1955) wrote that Fauré learnt restraint and beauty of surface from Mozart, tonal freedom and long melodic lines from Chopin, "and from Schumann, the sudden felicities in which his development sections abound, and those codas in which whole movements are briefly but magically illuminated." When Fauré was a student at the École Niedermeyer
his tutor had introduced him to new concepts of harmony, no longer outlawing certain chords as "dissonant
". By using unresolved mild discords and colouristic effects, Fauré anticipated the techniques of Impressionist
composers.
It is not always possible to give precise dates of composition for the early works. Manuscripts have been lost, and Fauré frequently reused thematic material from an unsuccessful or incomplete work.
In later years Fauré's music was written under the shadow of the composer's increasing deafness, becoming gradually less charming and more austere, marked by what the composer Aaron Copland
called "intensity on a background of calm." The critic Bryce Morrison has noted that pianists frequently prefer to play the accessible earlier piano works, rather than the later music, which expresses "such private passion and isolation, such alternating anger and resignation" that listeners are left uneasy. The Fauré scholar Jean-Michel Nectoux writes:
Nocturne No 1 in E minor, Op 33/1 (c.1875)
Nectoux rates the first nocturne as one of the best of the composer's early works. It is dedicated, like Fauré's song "Après un rêve", to his friend and early patron Marguerite Baugnies. Morrison calls the piece "cloistered and elegiac." Though published as the composer's Op 33/1 in 1883, it was written considerably earlier. It opens with a slow, pensive melody, followed by a more agitated second theme and another melody in C major, and ends with the return of the opening theme. The pianist and academic Sally Pinkas
writes that the work contains many hallmarks of Fauré's style, including "undulating rhythms, syncopation of the accompaniment against the melody and layered textures are already in evidence."
Nocturne No 2 in B major, Op 33/2 (c.1880)
The second nocturne opens with a bell-like passage, andantino espressivo, recalling – though Fauré said it was unconscious – the sound of distant bells that he heard frequently when a boy. Nectoux singles out "the light footed episode in alternating fifths and sixths" and its extremely delicate passagework, and points to the influence of Fauré's former teacher Saint-Saëns in the allegro ma non troppo toccata
section. Saint-Saëns himself declared the piece "absolutely entrancing."
Nocturne No 3 in A major, Op 33/3 (c.1882)
In the third nocturne, Morrison notes that the composer's fondness for syncopation is at its gentlest, "nostalgia lit by passion." Like its predecessors, it is in tripartite form. An expansive melody with syncopated left-hand accompaniment leads into a middle section in which a dolcissimo theme metamorphoses into bursts of passion. The return of the opening section is concluded by a gentle coda
that introduces new harmonic subtleties.
Nocturne No 4 in E major, Op 36 (c.1884)
The fourth nocturne, dedicated to the Comtesse de Mercy-Argenteau, contrasts a lyrical opening section and an episode in E minor with a sombre theme recalling the tolling of a bell. The first theme returns and is followed by a short coda. The pianist Alfred Cortot
, generally a great admirer of Fauré, found the piece "rather too satisfied with its languor."
Nocturne No 5 in B major, Op 37 (c.1884)
By contrast with its predecessor, the fifth nocturne is more animated, with unexpected shifts into remote keys. Nectoux writes of its undulating outline, and the "almost improvisatory, questioning character" of the opening.
Nocturne No 6 in D major, Op 63 (1894)
The sixth nocturne, dedicated to Eugène d'Eichthal, is widely held to be one of the finest of the series. Cortot said, "There are few pages in all music comparable to these." Morrison calls it "among the most rich and eloquent of all Fauré's piano works." The pianist and writer Nancy Bricard calls it "one of the most passionate and moving works in piano literature." Fauré wrote it after a six-year break from composing for the piano. The piece begins with an emotional, outpouring phrase, with echoes of Fauré's song cycle La bonne chanson
. The second theme, at first seemingly tranquil, has what the composer Charles Koechlin
calls a persistent inquietitude, emphasised by the syncopated accompaniment. The initial theme returns, and is followed by a substantial development of a gentle, contemplative melody. A recapitulation of the principal theme takes the piece to its conclusion. Copland wrote that it was with this work that Fauré first fully emerged from the shadow of Chopin, and he said of the piece, "The breath and dignity of the opening melody, the restless C sharp minor section which follows (with the peculiar syncopated harmonies so often and so well used by Fauré), the graceful fluidity of the third idea: all these elements are brought to a stormy climax in the short development section; then, after a pause, comes the return of the consoling first page."
Nocturne No 7 in C minor, Op 74 (1898)
The seventh nocturne departs from the A–B–A form of Fauré's earlier nocturnes; in Pinkas's view is it constructed more like a ballade than a nocturne. It opens with a slow (molto lento) theme of harmonic ambiguity, followed by a second theme, equally ambiguous in key, though nominally in D major. The central section is in F major, and the re-emergence of the first theme brings the piece to a conclusion. Morrison finds in this piece a sense of bleakness, and of the composer's struggle against despair. Pinkas, however, regards the work as a "contrast between ambiguity and joy, ending in reassurance." It is sometimes known as the "English" nocturne, having been composed while Fauré was staying in the UK, and being dedicated to the English pianist Adela Maddison
.
Nocturne No 8 in D major, Op 84/8 (1902)
Fauré did not intend the eighth nocturne to appear under that title. His publisher collected eight short piano pieces together and published them as 8 pièces brèves, allocating each of them a title unauthorised by the composer. The nocturne, the last piece in the set of eight, is shorter and less complex than its immediate predecessor, consisting of a song-like main theme with a delicate semiquaver accompaniment in the left hand.
Nocturne No 9 in B minor, Op 97 (1908)
The ninth nocturne, dedicated to Cortot's wife, Clotilde Breal, is the first of three that share a directness and sparseness in contrast with the more elaborate structures and textures of their predecessors. The left-hand accompaniment to the melodic line is simple and generally unvaried, and the harmony looks forward to later composers of the 20th century, using a whole tone scale
. Most of the piece is inward-looking and pensive, presaging the style of Fauré's final works, although it ends optimistically in a major key.
Nocturne No 10 in E minor, Op 99 (1908)
Like its immediate predecessor, the tenth nocturne is on a smaller scale than those of Fauré's middle period. In contrast with the ninth, however, the tenth is darker and angrier. The composer applies the A–B–A form less rigorously than in earlier nocturnes, and the opening bars of the piece recur intermittently throughout, eventually building to a fierce climax, described by Morrison as "a slow central climb … that inhabits a world of nightmare." The piece ends with a calm coda. It is dedicated to Madame Brunet-Lecomte.
Nocturne No 11 in F minor, Op 104/1 (1913)
The eleventh nocturne was written in memory of Noémi Lalo; her widower, Pierre Lalo, was a music critic and a friend and supporter of Fauré. Morrison suggests that its funereal effect of tolling bells may also reflect the composer's own state of anguish, with deafness encroaching. The melodic line is simple and restrained, and except for a passionate section near the end is generally quiet and elegiac.
Nocturne No 12 in E minor, Op 107 (1915)
With the twelfth nocturne Fauré returned to the scale and complexity of his middle period works, but both melodically and harmonically it is much harder to comprehend. There are deliberate dissonances and harmonic ambiguities that Pinkas describes as "taking tonality to its limit while still maintaining a single key." Morrison writes that "the ecstatic song of No 6 is transformed in a central section where lyricism is soured by dissonance, held up, as it were, to a distorting mirror." The work is in Fauré's customary nocturne form, A–B–A, but with a reiteration of the material of the second section, harmonically transformed, followed by a coda that draws on material from the opening section.
Nocturne No 13 in B minor, Op 119 (1921)
Fauré scholars are generally agreed that the last nocturne – which was the last work he wrote for the piano – is the among the greatest of the set. Nectoux writes that along with the sixth, it is "incontestably the most moving and inspired of the series." Bricard calls it "the most inspired and beautiful in the series." For Pinkas, the work "achieves a perfect equilibrium between late-style simplicity and full-textured passionate expression." The work opens in a "pure, almost rarefied atmosphere" (Nectoux), with a "tone of noble, gentle supplication … imposing gravity and … rich expressive four part writing." This is followed by an allegro, "a true middle section in a virtuoso manner, ending in a bang" (Pinkas). The repeat of the opening section completes the work.
Fauré's ambidextrousness is reflected in the layout of many of his piano works, notably in the barcarolles, where the main melodic line is often in the middle register, with the accompaniments in the high treble part of the keyboard as well as in the bass. Duchen considers the effect of this in the barcarolles "akin to that of a reflection shining up through the water."
Like the nocturnes, the barcarolles span nearly the whole of Fauré's composing career, and they similarly display the evolution of his style from the uncomplicated charm of the early pieces to the withdrawn and enigmatic quality of the late works.
Barcarolle No 1 in A minor, Op 26 (1880)
The first barcarolle was dedicated to the pianist Caroline de Serres (Mme. Montigny-Remaury) and premiered by Saint-Saëns at a concert of the Société Nationale de Musique
in 1882. The piece begins with an uncomplicated melody in a traditional lilting Venetian style in 6/8 time
. It develops into a more elaborate form before the introduction of the second theme, in which the melodic line is given in the middle register with delicate arpeggiated accompaniments in the treble and bass. Morrison comments that even in this early work, conventional sweetness is enlivened by subtle dissonance.
Barcarolle No 2 in G major, Op 41 (1885)
The second barcarolle, dedicated to the pianist Marie Poitevin, is a longer and more ambitious work than the first, with what Morrison calls an Italianate profusion of detail. Duchen writes of the work as complex and questing, harmonically and melodically, and points to the influence of Saint-Saëns, Liszt and even, unusually for Fauré, of Wagner
. The work opens in 6/8 time like the first, but Fauré varies the time signature to an unexpected 9/8
in the middle of the piece.
Barcarolle No 3 in G major, Op 42 (1885)
The third barcarolle is dedicated to Henriette Roger-Jourdain, wife of Fauré's friend, the painter Roger Jourdain. It opens with a simple phrase that is quickly elaborated into trills reminiscent of Chopin. The middle section, like that of the first, keeps the melody in the middle register with delicate arpeggiated ornaments above and below. The pianist Marguerite Long
said that these ornaments "crown the theme like sea foam."
Barcarolle No 4 in A major, Op 44 (1886)
One of the best-known of the set, the fourth barcarolle is "tuneful, quite short, perhaps more direct than the others." (Koechlin).
Barcarolle No 5 in F minor, Op 66 (1894)
Dedicated to Mme la Baronne V. d'Indy, the fifth barcarolle was written after a five-year period in which Fauré composed nothing for the piano. Orledge calls it powerful, agitated and virile. It is the first of Fauré's piano works in which there are no identifiable sections; its changes are in metre, not in tempo.
Barcarolle No 6 in E major, Op 70 (1896)
Koechlin brackets the sixth and seventh of the set together as a contrasting pair. Both pieces show "an economy of writing", the sixth "more moderate and tranquil in expression". Howat writes of a "sensuous insouciance" with an underlying virtuosity and wit under the "deceptively nonchalant surface".
Barcarolle No 7 in D minor, Op 90 (1905)
The seventh barcarolle contrasts with its predecessor in being more restless and sombre, recalling Fauré's "Crépuscule" from his song cycle La chanson d'Ève
.
Barcarolle No 8 in D major, Op 96 (1906)
Dedicated to Suzanne Alfred-Bruneau, the eighth barcarolle opens in with a cheerful theme, which soon gives way to melancholy. The second episode, in C minor, marked cantabile, is succeeded by an abrupt ending with a fortissimo chord.
Barcarolle No 9 in D major, Op 101 (1909)
The ninth barcarolle, in Koechlin's view, "recalls, as in a hazy remoteness, the happiness of the past". Nectoux writes that it consists of "a series of harmonic or polyphonic variations on a strange, sombre, syncopated theme, whose monotony recalls some sailor's song".
Barcarolle No 10 in A minor, Op 104/2 (1913)
Dedicated to Madame Léon Blum, the tenth barcarolle stays more closely within conventional tonality than its predecessor, "with a certain sedate gravity ... the monotony appropriate to a grey evening" (Koechlin). The melancholy theme is reminiscent of Mendelssohn's Venetian themes from Songs Without Words, but is developed in a way characteristic of Fauré, with "increasingly animated rhythms and, at certain points, excessively complex textures" (Nectoux).
Barcarolle No 11 in G minor, Op 105 (1913)
Dedicated to Laura, daughter of the composer Isaac Albéniz
. The eleventh and twelfth of the set can be viewed as another contrasting pair. The eleventh is severe in mood and in rhythm, reflecting the prevailing austerity of Fauré's later style.
Barcarolle No 12 in E major, Op 106 (1915)
Dedicated to Louis Diemer, the twelfth barcarolle is an allegretto giocoso. It opens in what was by now for Fauré a rare uncomplicated theme, in the traditional Venetian manner, but is developed in more subtle rhythms. Despite the increasing complexity of the polyphonic lines, Fauré keeps the melody prominent, and the piece ends with it transformed into "a theme of almost triumphal character" (Nectoux).
Barcarolle No 13 in C major, Op 116 (1921)
The last of the set is dedicated to Magda Gumaelius. Koechlin writes of it: "bare, superficially almost dry, but at heart most expressive with that deep nostalgia for vanished bright horizons: sentiments that the composer sugggests in passing rather than comments on in loquatious or theatrical oratory; he seemed to desire to preserve the soothing and illusory serenity of the image."
Cortot compared the first impromptu to a rapid barcarolle, redolent of "sunlit water", combining "stylised coquetry and regret".
Impromptu No 2 in F minor, Op 31 (1883)
Dedicated to Mlle Sacha de Rebina, the second impromptu maintains an airy tarantella
rhythm. It is scored less richly than the first of the set, giving it a lightness of texture.
Impromptu No 3 in A major, Op 34 (1883)
The third impromptu is the most popular of the set. Morrison calls it "among Fauré's most idyllic creations, its principal idea dipping and soaring above a gyrating, moto perpetuo accompaniment. It is marked by a combination of dash and delicacy.
Impromptu No 4 in D major, Op 91 (1906)
Dedicated to "Madame de Marliave" (Marguerite Long), the fourth impromptu was Fauré's return to the genre in his middle period. Unlike much of his music of the period, it avoids a dark mood, but Fauré had by now moved on from the uncomplicated charm of the first three of the set. His mature style is displayed in the central section, a contemplative andante, which is followed by a more agitated section that concludes the work.
Impromptu No 5 in F minor, Op 102 (1909)
Nectoux describes this impromptu as "a piece of sheer virtuosity celebrating, not without humour, the beauties of the whole-tone scale." Morrison, however, writes that the work "seethes with unrest".
Impromptu No 6 in D major, Op 86 (1904)
The last work in the published set was written before numbers four and five. It was originally written for harp for a competition at the Paris Conservatoire in 1904. Cortot made a transcription for piano, published in 1913 as Op 86 bis. The outer sections are light and brilliant, with a gentler central section, marked meno mosso.
Valse-caprice No 1 in A major, Op 30 (1882); and
Valse-caprice No 2 in G major, Op 38 (1884):
Chopin's influence is marked in the first two pieces. Orledge observes that the right-hand figuration at the end of No 1 is remarkably similar to that at the end of Chopin's Waltz in E minor
. In No 2 Nectoux detects the additional influence of Liszt (Au bord d'une source
) in the opening bars. In the closing bars of No 2, Orledge finds a resemblance to the end of Chopin's Grande Valse Brillante, Op, 18.
Valse-caprice No 3 in D major, Op 59 (1887–93); and
Valse-caprice No 4 in A major, Op 62 (1893–94):
Orledge writes that the second two valses-caprices are subtler and better integrated than the first two; they contain "more moments of quiet contemplation and more thematic development than before." There still remain touches of virtuosity and traces of Liszt, and these two valses-caprices are, in Orledge's words, the only solo pieces in the middle period to end in a loud and spectacular manner.
No 3 is dedicated to Mme. Philippe Dieterlen, No 4 to Mme. Max Lyon.
, Fauré's own voice is already recognisable. Instead of placing the slowest piece in the middle of the set and ending with the lively A minor piece, Fauré, already with musical views of his own, switches the expected order, and the set ends pianissimo, fading to nothing.
Andante quasi allegretto
The first romance, in A major, has as an opening theme an uncomplicated melody with Mendelssohnian syncopations. The theme is presented first in the higher and then in the middle register, before flowing evenly to its conclusion.
Allegro molto
The second romance, in A minor, an exuberant piece, has a strong semiquaver figure supporting the theme, and running high into the treble and low into the bass. This was later to become one of Fauré's most recognisable characteristics. After a lively display, the piece ends quietly.
Andante moderato
The final piece of the set, in A major, is a serene andante, with a flowing tune in the Mendelssohnian style. After gentle variation, it equally gently fades to silence at the end.
Marcel Proust
knew Fauré, and the Ballade is thought to have been the inspiration for the sonata by Proust's character Vinteuil that haunts Swann in À la recherche du temps perdu. According to Morrison, Debussy
was less impressed than Proust, calling the Ballade "About as erotic as a woman's loose shoulder strap". Morrison describes the Ballade as "a reminder of halcyon, half-remembered summer days and bird-haunted forests".
was composed in the mid 1870s but not published until 1883. It is a tribute to Chopin, and contains echoes of the earlier composer's music. Chopin, however, composed more than 50 mazurkas, and Fauré wrote only this one. Morrison regards it as an experiment on Fauré's part. The piece owes little to Polish folk-dance rhythms, and may have had a Russian influence through Fauré's friendship with Sergei Taneyev
at around the time of its composition.
heard Fauré play the piano version several times and noted that he took it at a tempo no slower than crochet=100. Boult commented that the composer's sprightly tempo emphasised that the Pavane was not a piece of German romanticism.
Capriccio in E major: Dedicated to Madame Jean Leonard Koechlin. Morrison calls it "capricious indeed", and notes a harmonic twist at the end "as nonchalant as it is acrobatic". It was originally written as a sight-reading test for students at the Paris Conservatoire, of which Fauré was the professor of composition from 1896 and director from 1905 to 1920.
Fantaisie in A major: Koechlin calls this piece a pleasant feuillet d'album
.
Fugue in A minor: This, like the other fugue in the set, is a revised version of a fugue Fauré composed at the start of his career, when he was a church organist in Rennes
. They are both, in Koechlin's view "in a pleasant and correct style, obviously less rich than those in the Well-Tempered Clavier, and more careful, but whose reserve conceals an incontestable mastery".
Adagietto in E minor: An andante moderato, "serious, grave, at once firm and pliant, attaining real beauty" (Koechlin).
Improvisation in C minor: Orledge calls this piece a middle period "song without words". It was composed as a sight-reading test for the Conservatoire.
Fugue in E minor: See Fugue in A minor, above.
Allégresse in C major: "A bubbling perpetuum mobile whose surging romantic feelings are only just kept under restraint" (Orledge). "A song, pure and gay, ulifted to a sunlit sky, a youthful outpouring, full of happiness." (Koechlin).
Nocturne [No 8] in D major: As noted above, this piece stands apart from the larger-scale works to which Fauré gave the title "nocturne". It would not be listed among them were it not for the publisher's unauthorised use of the title in this case. It is the longest of the eight pieces of Op 84, but is much shorter and simpler than the other 12 nocturnes, consisting of a song-like main theme with a delicate semiquaver accompaniment in the left hand.
, barcarolles Nos. 8–11 and nocturnes Nos. 9–11.
In Koechlin's view, "Apart from the Préludes of Chopin, it is hard to think of a collection of similar pieces that are so important". The critic Michael Oliver wrote, "Fauré's Préludes are among the subtlest and most elusive piano pieces in existence; they express deep but mingled emotions, sometimes with intense directness … more often with the utmost economy and restraint and with mysteriously complex simplicity." Jessica Duchen calls them "unusual slivers of magical inventiveness." The complete set takes between 20 and 25 minutes to play. The shortest of the set, No 8, lasts barely more than a minute; the longest, No 3, takes between four and five minutes.
Prélude No 1 in D major
Andante molto moderato. The first prélude is in the manner of a nocturne. Morrison refers to the cool serenity with which it opens, contrasted with the "slow and painful climbing" of the middle section.
Prélude No 2 in C minor
Allegro. The moto perpetuo of the second prélude is technically difficult for the pianist; even the most celebrated Fauré interpreter can be stretched by it. Koechlin calls it "a feverish whirling of dervishes, concluding in a sort of ecstasy, with the evocation of some fairy palace."
Prélude No 3 in G minor
Andante. Copland considered this prélude the most immediately accessible of the set. "At first, what will most attract you, will be the third in G-minor, a strange mixture of the romantic and classic." The musicologist Vladimir Jankélévitch
wrote, "it might be a barcarolle strangely interrupting a theme of very modern stylistic contour".
Prélude No 4 in F major
Allegretto moderato. The fourth prélude is among the gentlest of the set. The critic Alain Cochard writes that it "casts a spell on the ear through the subtlety of a harmony tinged with the modal and its melodic freshness." Koechlin calls it "a guileless pastorale, flexible, with succinct and refined modulations".
Prélude No 5 in D minor
Allegro. Cochard quotes the earlier writer Louis Aguettant's description of this prélude as "This fine outburst of anger (Ce bel accès de colère)". The mood is turbulent and anxious; the piece ends in quiet resignation reminiscent of the "Libera me" of the Requiem
.
Prélude No 6 in E minor
Andante. Fauré is at his most classical in this prélude, which is in the form of a canon
. Copland wrote that it "can be placed side by side with the most wonderful of the Preludes of the Well-Tempered Clavichord
."
Prélude No 7 in A major
Andante moderato. Morrison writes that this prélude, with its "stammering and halting progress" conveys an inconsolable grief. After the opening andante moderato, it becomes gradually more assertive, and subsides to conclude in the subdued mood of the opening. The rhythm of one of Fauré's best-known songs, "N'est-ce-pas?" from La bonne chanson
, runs through the piece.
Prélude No 8 in C minor
Allegro. In Copland's view this is, with the third, the most approachable of the Préludes, "with its dry, acrid brilliance (so rarely found in Faure)." Morrison describes it as "a repeated-note scherzo" going "from nowhere to nowhere."
Prélude No 9 in E minor
Adagio. Copland described this prélude as "so simple – so absolutely simple that we can never hope to understand how it can contain such great emotional power." The prélude is withdrawn in mood; Jankélévitch wrote that it "belongs from beginning to end to another world." Koechlin notes echoes of the "Offertoire" of the Requiem throughout the piece.
Subtitled Fantasie en forme de quadrille sur les thèmes favoris de l'Anneau de Nibelung ("Fantasy in the form of a quadrille on favourite themes from Der Ring des Nibelungen
"). Fauré admired the music of Wagner
and was familiar with the smallest details of his scores, but he was one of the few composers of his generation not to come under Wagner's musical influence.
From 1878, Fauré and his friend and ex-pupil André Messager
made trips abroad to see Wagner operas. They saw Das Rheingold
and Die Walküre
at Cologne Opera
; the complete Ring cycle in Munich and London; and Die Meistersinger
in Munich and at Bayreuth
, where they also saw Parsifal
. They frequently performed as a party piece their joint composition, the irreverent Souvenirs de Bayreuth, written in about 1888. This short, skittish piano work for four hands sends up themes from The Ring. It consists of five short sections in which Wagner's themes are transformed into dance rhythms. The manuscript (in the Bibliothèque nationale
, Paris) is in Massenet's hand.
Suite d'orchestre, Op 20
Between 1867 and 1873, Fauré wrote a symphonic work for full orchestra. The piece was first heard in 1873 when Fauré and Saint-Saens performed it in a two-piano version, but that transcription has not survived. Léon Boëllmann
made a new transcription of the first movement in 1893.
Dolly Suite, Op 56
The Dolly Suite is a six-section work for piano duet
. It was inspired by Hélène, nicknamed "Dolly", daughter of the singer Emma Bardac
with whom Fauré was intimately associated in the 1890s. The opening piece was a present for Dolly's first birthday, and Fauré added the other five pieces to mark her subsequent birthdays and other family occasions. Unusually for Fauré, who generally favoured strictly functional titles, the movements of the suite have whimsical titles associated with Dolly and her family.
Its six movements take about fifteen minutes to perform. The first is a Berceuse, or cradle-song. "Mi-a-ou", despite a title suggesting a cat, in fact represents the infant Dolly's attempts to pronounce the name of her brother Raoul; after "Le jardin de Dolly", the "Kitty Valse", again confounds its feline title, being a sketch of the family's pet dog. After the gentle "Tendresse", the suite ends with a lively evocation of Spain, which, Orledge notes, is one of Fauré's few purely extrovert pieces.Orledge, p. 95
Masques et bergamasques, Op 112
From the orchestral suite drawn from his music for the stage presentation Masques et bergamasques, Fauré made a transcription for piano duet, which was published in 1919. Like the orchestral suite, it consists of four movements, titled "Ouverture", "Menuet", "Gavotte" and "Pastorale".
s of his music for several companies between 1905 and 1913. The rolls that survive are of the "Romance sans paroles" No. 3, Barcarolle No. 1, Prelude No. 3, Nocturne No. 3, Thème et variations, Valses-caprices Nos. 1, 3 and 4, and piano versions of the Pavane, and the "Sicilienne" from Fauré's music for Pelléas and Mélisande. Several rolls have been re-recorded for CD. Recordings on disc were few until the 1940s. A survey by John Culshaw
in December 1945 singled out recordings of piano works played by Kathleen Long
, including the Nocturne No. 6, Barcarolle No. 2, the Thème et Variations, Op. 73, and the Ballade Op. 19 in its orchestral version. Fauré's music began to appear more frequently in the record companies' releases in the 1950s.
In the LP and particularly the CD era, the record companies built up a substantial catalogue of Fauré's piano music, performed by French and non-French musicians. The piano works were first recorded largely complete in the mid 1950s by Germaine Thyssens-Valentin
, with later sets being made by Jean-Philippe Collard
(1974), Paul Crossley
(1984–85), Jean Hubeau
(1988–89), and Kathryn Stott
(1995). Recital selections of major piano works have been recorded by many pianists including Pascal Rogé
(1990), and Kun-Woo Paik
(2002).
Gabriel Fauré
Gabriel Urbain Fauré was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th century composers...
(1845–1924) wrote in many genres, including songs, chamber music, orchestral pieces and choral works. Among his best-known compositions are those for piano, written between the 1860s and the 1920s.
Fauré's major sets of piano works are 13 nocturne
Nocturne
A nocturne is usually a musical composition that is inspired by, or evocative of, the night...
s, 13 barcarolle
Barcarolle
A barcarole is a folk song sung by Venetian gondoliers, or a piece of music composed in that style...
s, six impromptu
Impromptu
An impromptu is a free-form musical composition with the character of an ex tempore improvisation as if prompted by the spirit of the moment, usually for a solo instrument, such as piano...
s and four valses-caprices. These sets were composed during several decades in his long career, and display the change in his style from uncomplicated youthful charm to a final enigmatic introspection, by way of a turbulent period in his middle years. His other notable piano pieces, including shorter works, or collections composed or published as a set, are Romances sans paroles, Ballade in F major, Mazurka
Mazurka
The mazurka is a Polish folk dance in triple meter, usually at a lively tempo, and with accent on the third or second beat.-History:The folk origins of the mazurek are two other Polish musical forms—the slow machine...
in B major, Thème et variations in C major, and Huit pièces brèves. For piano duet, Fauré composed the Dolly Suite
Dolly (Fauré)
The Dolly Suite, Op. 56, is a collection of pieces for piano four-hands by Gabriel Fauré. It consists of short pieces written or revised between 1893 and 1896, to mark the birthdays and other events in the life of the daughter of the composer's mistress....
and, together with his friend and former pupil André Messager
André Messager
André Charles Prosper Messager , was a French composer, organist, pianist, conductor and administrator. His stage compositions included ballets and 30 opéra comiques and operettas, among which Véronique, had lasting success, with Les p'tites Michu and Monsieur Beaucaire also enjoying international...
, an exuberant parody of Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
in the short suite Souvenirs de Bayreuth.
Much of Fauré's piano music is difficult to play, but it is rarely virtuoso in style. The composer disliked showy display, and the predominant characteristic of his piano music is a classical restraint and understatement.
Background
Although for much of his career he made his living as a church organist, Fauré greatly preferred the piano. He never underestimated the challenges in composing for the instrument; he wrote, "In piano music there's no room for padding – one has to pay cash and make it constantly interesting. It's perhaps the most difficult medium of all." His piano works are marked by a classical French lucidity; he was unimpressed by pianistic display, commenting of keyboard virtuosi, "the greater they are, the worse they play me." Even a virtuoso like Franz LisztFranz Liszt
Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
found Fauré's music hard to play: at his first attempt he said to Fauré, "I've run out of fingers". This difficulty was largely because the composer's years as an organist influenced the way he laid out his keyboard works, often using arpeggiated
Arpeggio
An arpeggio is a musical technique where notes in a chord are played or sung in sequence, one after the other, rather than ringing out simultaneously...
figures, with themes distributed between the two hands, requiring fingerings more natural for organists than pianists. This tendency may have been even stronger because Fauré was ambidextrous, and he was not always inclined to follow the convention that the melody is in the right hand and the accompaniment in the left. His old friend and former teacher Camille Saint-Saëns
Camille Saint-Saëns
Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns was a French Late-Romantic composer, organist, conductor, and pianist. He is known especially for The Carnival of the Animals, Danse macabre, Samson and Delilah, Piano Concerto No. 2, Cello Concerto No. 1, Havanaise, Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, and his Symphony...
wrote to him in 1917, "Ah! if there is a god for the left hand, I should very much like to know him and make him an offering when I am disposed to play your music; the 2nd Valse-Caprice is terrible in this respect; I have however managed to get to the end of it by dint of absolute determination."
As a man, Fauré was said to possess "that mysterious gift that no other can replace or surpass: charm", and charm is a conspicuous feature of many of his early compositions. His early piano works are influenced in style by Chopin
Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....
, and throughout his life he composed piano works using similar titles to those of Chopin, notably nocturnes
Nocturnes
Nocturnes is an orchestral composition in three movements by the French composer Claude Debussy. It was completed on 15 December 1899.-Movements:The three movements are:* I. Nuages * II. Fêtes * III...
and barcarolle
Barcarolle
A barcarole is a folk song sung by Venetian gondoliers, or a piece of music composed in that style...
s. An even greater influence was Schumann
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
, whose piano music Fauré loved more than any other. The authors of The Record Guide
The Record Guide
The Record Guide was an English reference work, listing, describing and evaluating gramophone recordings of classical music in the 1950s. It was the precursor of modern guides such as The Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music-Publication history:...
(1955) wrote that Fauré learnt restraint and beauty of surface from Mozart, tonal freedom and long melodic lines from Chopin, "and from Schumann, the sudden felicities in which his development sections abound, and those codas in which whole movements are briefly but magically illuminated." When Fauré was a student at the École Niedermeyer
Louis Niedermeyer
Abraham Louis Niedermeyer was a composer chiefly of church music but also of a few operas, and a teacher who took over the Ecole Choron, duly renamed École Niedermeyer, a school for the study and practice of church music, where several eminent French musicians studied including Gabriel Fauré and...
his tutor had introduced him to new concepts of harmony, no longer outlawing certain chords as "dissonant
Consonance and dissonance
In music, a consonance is a harmony, chord, or interval considered stable, as opposed to a dissonance , which is considered to be unstable...
". By using unresolved mild discords and colouristic effects, Fauré anticipated the techniques of Impressionist
Impressionist music
Impressionism in music was a tendency in European classical music, mainly in France, which appeared in the late nineteenth century and continued into the middle of the twentieth century. Similarly to its precursor in the visual arts, musical impressionism focuses on a suggestion and an atmosphere...
composers.
It is not always possible to give precise dates of composition for the early works. Manuscripts have been lost, and Fauré frequently reused thematic material from an unsuccessful or incomplete work.
In later years Fauré's music was written under the shadow of the composer's increasing deafness, becoming gradually less charming and more austere, marked by what the composer Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. He was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, and is often referred to as "the Dean of American Composers"...
called "intensity on a background of calm." The critic Bryce Morrison has noted that pianists frequently prefer to play the accessible earlier piano works, rather than the later music, which expresses "such private passion and isolation, such alternating anger and resignation" that listeners are left uneasy. The Fauré scholar Jean-Michel Nectoux writes:
Nocturnes
The nocturnes, along with the barcarolles, are generally regarded as the composer's greatest piano works. Fauré greatly admired the music of Chopin, and was happy to compose in forms and patterns established by the earlier composer. Morrison notes that Fauré's nocturnes follow Chopin's model, in contrasting serene outer sections with livelier or mure turbulent central episodes. The composer's son Philippe commented that the nocturnes "are not necessarily based on rêveries or on emotions inspired by the night. They are lyrical, generally impassioned pieces, sometimes anguished or wholly elegiac."Nocturne No 1 in E minor, Op 33/1 (c.1875)
Nectoux rates the first nocturne as one of the best of the composer's early works. It is dedicated, like Fauré's song "Après un rêve", to his friend and early patron Marguerite Baugnies. Morrison calls the piece "cloistered and elegiac." Though published as the composer's Op 33/1 in 1883, it was written considerably earlier. It opens with a slow, pensive melody, followed by a more agitated second theme and another melody in C major, and ends with the return of the opening theme. The pianist and academic Sally Pinkas
Sally Pinkas
Sally Pinkas is a pianist, born and raised in Israel.She moved to the United States as a teenager to study piano. She earned performance degrees from Indiana University and the New England Conservatory of Music, and a Ph.D. in Composition and Theory from Brandeis University. She made her debut in...
writes that the work contains many hallmarks of Fauré's style, including "undulating rhythms, syncopation of the accompaniment against the melody and layered textures are already in evidence."
Nocturne No 2 in B major, Op 33/2 (c.1880)
The second nocturne opens with a bell-like passage, andantino espressivo, recalling – though Fauré said it was unconscious – the sound of distant bells that he heard frequently when a boy. Nectoux singles out "the light footed episode in alternating fifths and sixths" and its extremely delicate passagework, and points to the influence of Fauré's former teacher Saint-Saëns in the allegro ma non troppo toccata
Toccata
Toccata is a virtuoso piece of music typically for a keyboard or plucked string instrument featuring fast-moving, lightly fingered or otherwise virtuosic passages or sections, with or without imitative or fugal interludes, generally emphasizing the dexterity of the performer's fingers...
section. Saint-Saëns himself declared the piece "absolutely entrancing."
Nocturne No 3 in A major, Op 33/3 (c.1882)
In the third nocturne, Morrison notes that the composer's fondness for syncopation is at its gentlest, "nostalgia lit by passion." Like its predecessors, it is in tripartite form. An expansive melody with syncopated left-hand accompaniment leads into a middle section in which a dolcissimo theme metamorphoses into bursts of passion. The return of the opening section is concluded by a gentle coda
Coda (music)
Coda is a term used in music in a number of different senses, primarily to designate a passage that brings a piece to an end. Technically, it is an expanded cadence...
that introduces new harmonic subtleties.
Nocturne No 4 in E major, Op 36 (c.1884)
The fourth nocturne, dedicated to the Comtesse de Mercy-Argenteau, contrasts a lyrical opening section and an episode in E minor with a sombre theme recalling the tolling of a bell. The first theme returns and is followed by a short coda. The pianist Alfred Cortot
Alfred Cortot
Alfred Denis Cortot was a Franco-Swiss pianist and conductor. He is one of the most renowned 20th-century classical musicians, especially valued for his poetic insight in Romantic period piano works, particularly those of Chopin and Schumann.-Early life and education:Born in Nyon, Vaud, in the...
, generally a great admirer of Fauré, found the piece "rather too satisfied with its languor."
Nocturne No 5 in B major, Op 37 (c.1884)
By contrast with its predecessor, the fifth nocturne is more animated, with unexpected shifts into remote keys. Nectoux writes of its undulating outline, and the "almost improvisatory, questioning character" of the opening.
Nocturne No 6 in D major, Op 63 (1894)
The sixth nocturne, dedicated to Eugène d'Eichthal, is widely held to be one of the finest of the series. Cortot said, "There are few pages in all music comparable to these." Morrison calls it "among the most rich and eloquent of all Fauré's piano works." The pianist and writer Nancy Bricard calls it "one of the most passionate and moving works in piano literature." Fauré wrote it after a six-year break from composing for the piano. The piece begins with an emotional, outpouring phrase, with echoes of Fauré's song cycle La bonne chanson
La bonne chanson (Fauré)
La bonne chanson, Op. 61, by Gabriel Fauré, is a song cycle of nine mélodies for voice and piano. He composed it during 1892–94; in 1898 he created a version for voice, piano and string quintet. The cycle is based on nine of the poems from the collection of the same name by Paul Verlaine...
. The second theme, at first seemingly tranquil, has what the composer Charles Koechlin
Charles Koechlin
Charles Louis Eugène Koechlin was a French composer, teacher and writer on music. He was a political radical all his life and a passionate enthusiast for such diverse things as medieval music, The Jungle Book of Rudyard Kipling, Johann Sebastian Bach, film stars , travelling, stereoscopic...
calls a persistent inquietitude, emphasised by the syncopated accompaniment. The initial theme returns, and is followed by a substantial development of a gentle, contemplative melody. A recapitulation of the principal theme takes the piece to its conclusion. Copland wrote that it was with this work that Fauré first fully emerged from the shadow of Chopin, and he said of the piece, "The breath and dignity of the opening melody, the restless C sharp minor section which follows (with the peculiar syncopated harmonies so often and so well used by Fauré), the graceful fluidity of the third idea: all these elements are brought to a stormy climax in the short development section; then, after a pause, comes the return of the consoling first page."
Nocturne No 7 in C minor, Op 74 (1898)
The seventh nocturne departs from the A–B–A form of Fauré's earlier nocturnes; in Pinkas's view is it constructed more like a ballade than a nocturne. It opens with a slow (molto lento) theme of harmonic ambiguity, followed by a second theme, equally ambiguous in key, though nominally in D major. The central section is in F major, and the re-emergence of the first theme brings the piece to a conclusion. Morrison finds in this piece a sense of bleakness, and of the composer's struggle against despair. Pinkas, however, regards the work as a "contrast between ambiguity and joy, ending in reassurance." It is sometimes known as the "English" nocturne, having been composed while Fauré was staying in the UK, and being dedicated to the English pianist Adela Maddison
Adela Maddison
Katharine Mary Adela Maddison, née Tindal , usually known as Adela Maddison, was a British composer of operas, ballets, instrumental music and songs. She was also a concert producer...
.
Nocturne No 8 in D major, Op 84/8 (1902)
Fauré did not intend the eighth nocturne to appear under that title. His publisher collected eight short piano pieces together and published them as 8 pièces brèves, allocating each of them a title unauthorised by the composer. The nocturne, the last piece in the set of eight, is shorter and less complex than its immediate predecessor, consisting of a song-like main theme with a delicate semiquaver accompaniment in the left hand.
Nocturne No 9 in B minor, Op 97 (1908)
The ninth nocturne, dedicated to Cortot's wife, Clotilde Breal, is the first of three that share a directness and sparseness in contrast with the more elaborate structures and textures of their predecessors. The left-hand accompaniment to the melodic line is simple and generally unvaried, and the harmony looks forward to later composers of the 20th century, using a whole tone scale
Whole tone scale
In music, a whole tone scale is a scale in which each note is separated from its neighbors by the interval of a whole step. There are only two complementary whole tone scales, both six-note or hexatonic scales:...
. Most of the piece is inward-looking and pensive, presaging the style of Fauré's final works, although it ends optimistically in a major key.
Nocturne No 10 in E minor, Op 99 (1908)
Like its immediate predecessor, the tenth nocturne is on a smaller scale than those of Fauré's middle period. In contrast with the ninth, however, the tenth is darker and angrier. The composer applies the A–B–A form less rigorously than in earlier nocturnes, and the opening bars of the piece recur intermittently throughout, eventually building to a fierce climax, described by Morrison as "a slow central climb … that inhabits a world of nightmare." The piece ends with a calm coda. It is dedicated to Madame Brunet-Lecomte.
Nocturne No 11 in F minor, Op 104/1 (1913)
The eleventh nocturne was written in memory of Noémi Lalo; her widower, Pierre Lalo, was a music critic and a friend and supporter of Fauré. Morrison suggests that its funereal effect of tolling bells may also reflect the composer's own state of anguish, with deafness encroaching. The melodic line is simple and restrained, and except for a passionate section near the end is generally quiet and elegiac.
Nocturne No 12 in E minor, Op 107 (1915)
With the twelfth nocturne Fauré returned to the scale and complexity of his middle period works, but both melodically and harmonically it is much harder to comprehend. There are deliberate dissonances and harmonic ambiguities that Pinkas describes as "taking tonality to its limit while still maintaining a single key." Morrison writes that "the ecstatic song of No 6 is transformed in a central section where lyricism is soured by dissonance, held up, as it were, to a distorting mirror." The work is in Fauré's customary nocturne form, A–B–A, but with a reiteration of the material of the second section, harmonically transformed, followed by a coda that draws on material from the opening section.
Nocturne No 13 in B minor, Op 119 (1921)
Fauré scholars are generally agreed that the last nocturne – which was the last work he wrote for the piano – is the among the greatest of the set. Nectoux writes that along with the sixth, it is "incontestably the most moving and inspired of the series." Bricard calls it "the most inspired and beautiful in the series." For Pinkas, the work "achieves a perfect equilibrium between late-style simplicity and full-textured passionate expression." The work opens in a "pure, almost rarefied atmosphere" (Nectoux), with a "tone of noble, gentle supplication … imposing gravity and … rich expressive four part writing." This is followed by an allegro, "a true middle section in a virtuoso manner, ending in a bang" (Pinkas). The repeat of the opening section completes the work.
Barcarolles
Barcarolles were originally folk songs sung by gondoliers in Venice. In Morrison's phrase, Fauré's use of the term was more convenient than precise. Fauré was not attracted by fanciful titles for musical pieces, and maintained that he would not use even such generic titles as "barcarolle" if his publishers did not insist. His son Philippe recalled, "he would far rather have given his Nocturnes, Impromptus, and even his Barcarolles the simple title Piano Piece no. so-and-so." Nevertheless, following the predecents of Chopin and most conspicuously Mendelssohn, Fauré made extensive use of the barcarolle, in what his biographer Jessica Duchen calls "an evocation of the rhythmic rocking and lapping of water around appropriately lyrical melodies."Fauré's ambidextrousness is reflected in the layout of many of his piano works, notably in the barcarolles, where the main melodic line is often in the middle register, with the accompaniments in the high treble part of the keyboard as well as in the bass. Duchen considers the effect of this in the barcarolles "akin to that of a reflection shining up through the water."
Like the nocturnes, the barcarolles span nearly the whole of Fauré's composing career, and they similarly display the evolution of his style from the uncomplicated charm of the early pieces to the withdrawn and enigmatic quality of the late works.
Barcarolle No 1 in A minor, Op 26 (1880)
The first barcarolle was dedicated to the pianist Caroline de Serres (Mme. Montigny-Remaury) and premiered by Saint-Saëns at a concert of the Société Nationale de Musique
Société Nationale de Musique
The Société Nationale de Musique was founded on February 25, 1871 to promote French music and to allow young composers to present their music in public...
in 1882. The piece begins with an uncomplicated melody in a traditional lilting Venetian style in 6/8 time
Time signature
The time signature is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats are in each measure and which note value constitutes one beat....
. It develops into a more elaborate form before the introduction of the second theme, in which the melodic line is given in the middle register with delicate arpeggiated accompaniments in the treble and bass. Morrison comments that even in this early work, conventional sweetness is enlivened by subtle dissonance.
Barcarolle No 2 in G major, Op 41 (1885)
The second barcarolle, dedicated to the pianist Marie Poitevin, is a longer and more ambitious work than the first, with what Morrison calls an Italianate profusion of detail. Duchen writes of the work as complex and questing, harmonically and melodically, and points to the influence of Saint-Saëns, Liszt and even, unusually for Fauré, of Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
. The work opens in 6/8 time like the first, but Fauré varies the time signature to an unexpected 9/8
Time signature
The time signature is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats are in each measure and which note value constitutes one beat....
in the middle of the piece.
Barcarolle No 3 in G major, Op 42 (1885)
The third barcarolle is dedicated to Henriette Roger-Jourdain, wife of Fauré's friend, the painter Roger Jourdain. It opens with a simple phrase that is quickly elaborated into trills reminiscent of Chopin. The middle section, like that of the first, keeps the melody in the middle register with delicate arpeggiated ornaments above and below. The pianist Marguerite Long
Marguerite Long
Marguerite Long was a French pianist and teacher.Marguerite Marie-Charlotte Long was born in Nîmes. She studied with Henri Fissot at the Paris Conservatoire, taking a premier prix in 1891, and privately with Antoine François Marmontel...
said that these ornaments "crown the theme like sea foam."
Barcarolle No 4 in A major, Op 44 (1886)
One of the best-known of the set, the fourth barcarolle is "tuneful, quite short, perhaps more direct than the others." (Koechlin).
Barcarolle No 5 in F minor, Op 66 (1894)
Dedicated to Mme la Baronne V. d'Indy, the fifth barcarolle was written after a five-year period in which Fauré composed nothing for the piano. Orledge calls it powerful, agitated and virile. It is the first of Fauré's piano works in which there are no identifiable sections; its changes are in metre, not in tempo.
Barcarolle No 6 in E major, Op 70 (1896)
Koechlin brackets the sixth and seventh of the set together as a contrasting pair. Both pieces show "an economy of writing", the sixth "more moderate and tranquil in expression". Howat writes of a "sensuous insouciance" with an underlying virtuosity and wit under the "deceptively nonchalant surface".
Barcarolle No 7 in D minor, Op 90 (1905)
The seventh barcarolle contrasts with its predecessor in being more restless and sombre, recalling Fauré's "Crépuscule" from his song cycle La chanson d'Ève
La chanson d'Ève
La chanson d'Ève, Op. 95, is a song cycle by Gabriel Fauré, of ten mélodies for voice and piano. Composed during 1906–10, it is based on the collection of poetry of the same name by Charles van Lerberghe. It is Fauré's longest song cycle.-Composition:...
.
Barcarolle No 8 in D major, Op 96 (1906)
Dedicated to Suzanne Alfred-Bruneau, the eighth barcarolle opens in with a cheerful theme, which soon gives way to melancholy. The second episode, in C minor, marked cantabile, is succeeded by an abrupt ending with a fortissimo chord.
Barcarolle No 9 in D major, Op 101 (1909)
The ninth barcarolle, in Koechlin's view, "recalls, as in a hazy remoteness, the happiness of the past". Nectoux writes that it consists of "a series of harmonic or polyphonic variations on a strange, sombre, syncopated theme, whose monotony recalls some sailor's song".
Barcarolle No 10 in A minor, Op 104/2 (1913)
Dedicated to Madame Léon Blum, the tenth barcarolle stays more closely within conventional tonality than its predecessor, "with a certain sedate gravity ... the monotony appropriate to a grey evening" (Koechlin). The melancholy theme is reminiscent of Mendelssohn's Venetian themes from Songs Without Words, but is developed in a way characteristic of Fauré, with "increasingly animated rhythms and, at certain points, excessively complex textures" (Nectoux).
Barcarolle No 11 in G minor, Op 105 (1913)
Dedicated to Laura, daughter of the composer Isaac Albéniz
Isaac Albéniz
Isaac Manuel Francisco Albéniz y Pascual was a Spanish Catalan pianist and composer best known for his piano works based on folk music idioms .-Life:Born in Camprodon, province of Girona, to Ángel Albéniz and his wife Dolors Pascual, Albéniz...
. The eleventh and twelfth of the set can be viewed as another contrasting pair. The eleventh is severe in mood and in rhythm, reflecting the prevailing austerity of Fauré's later style.
Barcarolle No 12 in E major, Op 106 (1915)
Dedicated to Louis Diemer, the twelfth barcarolle is an allegretto giocoso. It opens in what was by now for Fauré a rare uncomplicated theme, in the traditional Venetian manner, but is developed in more subtle rhythms. Despite the increasing complexity of the polyphonic lines, Fauré keeps the melody prominent, and the piece ends with it transformed into "a theme of almost triumphal character" (Nectoux).
Barcarolle No 13 in C major, Op 116 (1921)
The last of the set is dedicated to Magda Gumaelius. Koechlin writes of it: "bare, superficially almost dry, but at heart most expressive with that deep nostalgia for vanished bright horizons: sentiments that the composer sugggests in passing rather than comments on in loquatious or theatrical oratory; he seemed to desire to preserve the soothing and illusory serenity of the image."
Impromptus
Impromptu No 1 in E major, Op 25 (1881)Cortot compared the first impromptu to a rapid barcarolle, redolent of "sunlit water", combining "stylised coquetry and regret".
Impromptu No 2 in F minor, Op 31 (1883)
Dedicated to Mlle Sacha de Rebina, the second impromptu maintains an airy tarantella
Tarantella
The term tarantella groups a number of different southern Italian couple folk dances characterized by a fast upbeat tempo, usually in 6/8 time , accompanied by tambourines. It is among the most recognized of traditional Italian music. The specific dance name varies with every region, for instance...
rhythm. It is scored less richly than the first of the set, giving it a lightness of texture.
Impromptu No 3 in A major, Op 34 (1883)
The third impromptu is the most popular of the set. Morrison calls it "among Fauré's most idyllic creations, its principal idea dipping and soaring above a gyrating, moto perpetuo accompaniment. It is marked by a combination of dash and delicacy.
Impromptu No 4 in D major, Op 91 (1906)
Dedicated to "Madame de Marliave" (Marguerite Long), the fourth impromptu was Fauré's return to the genre in his middle period. Unlike much of his music of the period, it avoids a dark mood, but Fauré had by now moved on from the uncomplicated charm of the first three of the set. His mature style is displayed in the central section, a contemplative andante, which is followed by a more agitated section that concludes the work.
Impromptu No 5 in F minor, Op 102 (1909)
Nectoux describes this impromptu as "a piece of sheer virtuosity celebrating, not without humour, the beauties of the whole-tone scale." Morrison, however, writes that the work "seethes with unrest".
Impromptu No 6 in D major, Op 86 (1904)
The last work in the published set was written before numbers four and five. It was originally written for harp for a competition at the Paris Conservatoire in 1904. Cortot made a transcription for piano, published in 1913 as Op 86 bis. The outer sections are light and brilliant, with a gentler central section, marked meno mosso.
Valses-caprices
The four valses-caprices are not a cycle, but rather two sets of two, the first from Fauré's early period and the second from his middle period. Morrison calls all four of them "more 'caprice' than 'waltz'", and comments that they combine and develop the scintillating style of Chopin and Saint-Saëns waltzes. They show Fauré at his most playful, presenting variations before the theme is heard and darting in and out of unexpected keys. Aaron Copland, though generally a keen admirer of Fauré's music, wrote, "the several Valses-Caprices, in spite of their admirable qualities, seem to me essentially foreign to Faure's esprit. His is too orderly, too logical a mind to be really capricious." Cortot, by contrast, spoke approvingly of their "sensual grace ... perfect distinction ... impassioned tenderness."Valse-caprice No 1 in A major, Op 30 (1882); and
Valse-caprice No 2 in G major, Op 38 (1884)
Chopin's influence is marked in the first two pieces. Orledge observes that the right-hand figuration at the end of No 1 is remarkably similar to that at the end of Chopin's Waltz in E minor
Waltz in E minor (Chopin)
The Waltz in E minor is a waltz for solo piano by Frédéric Chopin. It was composed circa 1830 and published in 1868.It was the first of Chopin's posthumously published waltzes not to be given a posthumous opus number. It appears in Brown's catalogue as B.56, in Kobylańska's catalogue as KK IVa/15,...
. In No 2 Nectoux detects the additional influence of Liszt (Au bord d'une source
Au bord d'une source
Au bord d'une source is a virtuoso piano showpiece by Franz Liszt; it is the 4th piece of the first suite of Années de Pèlerinage .There are three separate versions of Au bord d'une source...
) in the opening bars. In the closing bars of No 2, Orledge finds a resemblance to the end of Chopin's Grande Valse Brillante, Op, 18.
Valse-caprice No 3 in D major, Op 59 (1887–93); and
Valse-caprice No 4 in A major, Op 62 (1893–94)
Orledge writes that the second two valses-caprices are subtler and better integrated than the first two; they contain "more moments of quiet contemplation and more thematic development than before." There still remain touches of virtuosity and traces of Liszt, and these two valses-caprices are, in Orledge's words, the only solo pieces in the middle period to end in a loud and spectacular manner.
No 3 is dedicated to Mme. Philippe Dieterlen, No 4 to Mme. Max Lyon.
Romances sans paroles, Op 17
Fauré wrote these three "songs without words" while still a student at the Ecole Niedermeyer, in about 1863. They were not published until 1880, but they then became some of his most popular works. Copland considered them immature pieces, which "should be relegated to the indiscretions every young composer commits." Later critics have taken a less severe view; Morrison describes the Romances as "an affectionate and very Gallic tribute to Mendelssohn's urbanity, agitation and ease." The commentator Keith Anderson writes that although they were a popular French counterpart to Mendelssohn's Songs without WordsSongs without Words
Songs Without Words is a series of short, lyrical piano pieces by the Romantic composer Felix Mendelssohn.-Composition and reception:...
, Fauré's own voice is already recognisable. Instead of placing the slowest piece in the middle of the set and ending with the lively A minor piece, Fauré, already with musical views of his own, switches the expected order, and the set ends pianissimo, fading to nothing.
Andante quasi allegretto
The first romance, in A major, has as an opening theme an uncomplicated melody with Mendelssohnian syncopations. The theme is presented first in the higher and then in the middle register, before flowing evenly to its conclusion.
Allegro molto
The second romance, in A minor, an exuberant piece, has a strong semiquaver figure supporting the theme, and running high into the treble and low into the bass. This was later to become one of Fauré's most recognisable characteristics. After a lively display, the piece ends quietly.
Andante moderato
The final piece of the set, in A major, is a serene andante, with a flowing tune in the Mendelssohnian style. After gentle variation, it equally gently fades to silence at the end.
Ballade in F major, Op 19
The Ballade, dedicated to Saint Saëns, dates from 1877. It is one of Fauré's most substantial works for solo piano, but is better known in a version for piano and orchestra that he made in 1881 at Liszt's suggestion. Playing for a little over 14 minutes, it is second in length only to the Thème et variations. Fauré first conceived the music as a set of individual pieces, but then decided to make them into a single work by carrying the main theme of each section over into the following section as a secondary theme. The work opens with the F major theme, an andante cantabile, which is followed by a slower section, marked lento, in E minor. The third section is an andante introducing a third theme. In the last section, an allegro, a return of the second theme brings the work to a conclusion in which Nectoux comments, the treble sings with particular delicacy.Marcel Proust
Marcel Proust
Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust was a French novelist, critic, and essayist best known for his monumental À la recherche du temps perdu...
knew Fauré, and the Ballade is thought to have been the inspiration for the sonata by Proust's character Vinteuil that haunts Swann in À la recherche du temps perdu. According to Morrison, Debussy
Claude Debussy
Claude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
was less impressed than Proust, calling the Ballade "About as erotic as a woman's loose shoulder strap". Morrison describes the Ballade as "a reminder of halcyon, half-remembered summer days and bird-haunted forests".
Mazurka in B major, Op 32
The MazurkaMazurka
The mazurka is a Polish folk dance in triple meter, usually at a lively tempo, and with accent on the third or second beat.-History:The folk origins of the mazurek are two other Polish musical forms—the slow machine...
was composed in the mid 1870s but not published until 1883. It is a tribute to Chopin, and contains echoes of the earlier composer's music. Chopin, however, composed more than 50 mazurkas, and Fauré wrote only this one. Morrison regards it as an experiment on Fauré's part. The piece owes little to Polish folk-dance rhythms, and may have had a Russian influence through Fauré's friendship with Sergei Taneyev
Sergei Taneyev
Sergei Ivanovich Taneyev , was a Russian composer, pianist, teacher of composition, music theorist and author.-Life:...
at around the time of its composition.
Pavane, Op 50
Better known in its later orchestral version with optional choral part, the Pavane was composed for piano in the late 1880s. In the form of an ancient dance, the piece was written to be played more briskly than it has generally come to be performed in its familiar orchestral guise. The conductor Sir Adrian BoultAdrian Boult
Sir Adrian Cedric Boult CH was an English conductor. Brought up in a prosperous mercantile family he followed musical studies in England and at Leipzig, Germany, with early conducting work in London for the Royal Opera House and Sergei Diaghilev's ballet company. His first prominent post was...
heard Fauré play the piano version several times and noted that he took it at a tempo no slower than crochet=100. Boult commented that the composer's sprightly tempo emphasised that the Pavane was not a piece of German romanticism.
Thème et variations in C major, Op 73
Written in 1895, when he was 50, this is among Fauré's most extended compositions for piano, with a performance time of about 15 minutes. Although it has many passages that reflect the influence of Schumann's Symphonic Studies, in Jessica Duchen's words "its harmonies and pianistic idioms" are unmistakably those of Fauré. As in the earlier Romances sans paroles, Op 17, Fauré does not follow the conventional course of ending with the loudest and most extrovert variation; the variation nearest to that description is placed next to last, and is followed by a gentle conclusion, "a typically Faurean understated finish." Copland wrote of the work:Prelude to Pénélope
Fauré's opera based on the legend of Ulysses and Penelope was first performed in 1913, after which the composer published a version of the prelude transcribed for piano. The piece, in G minor, contrasts a gravely noble andante moderato theme representing Penelope with a forthright theme for Ulysses. The polyphonic writing transfers effectively from the orchestral original to the piano.8 Pièces brèves, Op 84
Fauré did not intend these pieces to be published as a set; they were composed as individual works between 1869 and 1902. When Hamelle, his publishers, insisted on issuing them together as "Eight Short Pieces" in 1902, the composer successfully demanded that that none of the eight must be allocated its own title. When he moved on to another publisher, Hamelle ignored his earlier instructions and issued subsequent editions with titles for each piece. Nectoux comments that the labelling of the eighth piece as "Nocturne No 8" is particularly questionable (see Nocturne [No 8], below). In the first decade of the 21st century the publisher Peters issued a new critical edition of the Eight Pieces with the spurious titles removed. The eight pieces take less than three minutes each in performance.Capriccio in E major: Dedicated to Madame Jean Leonard Koechlin. Morrison calls it "capricious indeed", and notes a harmonic twist at the end "as nonchalant as it is acrobatic". It was originally written as a sight-reading test for students at the Paris Conservatoire, of which Fauré was the professor of composition from 1896 and director from 1905 to 1920.
Fantaisie in A major: Koechlin calls this piece a pleasant feuillet d'album
Album leaf (music)
Album leaf is the title of numerous minor compositions by a wide variety of classical composers. It also appears in the French version, Feuille d'album or Feuillet d'album; the German version Albumblatt ; the Russian version Листок из альбома Album leaf is the title of numerous minor compositions...
.
Fugue in A minor: This, like the other fugue in the set, is a revised version of a fugue Fauré composed at the start of his career, when he was a church organist in Rennes
Rennes
Rennes is a city in the east of Brittany in northwestern France. Rennes is the capital of the region of Brittany, as well as the Ille-et-Vilaine department.-History:...
. They are both, in Koechlin's view "in a pleasant and correct style, obviously less rich than those in the Well-Tempered Clavier, and more careful, but whose reserve conceals an incontestable mastery".
Adagietto in E minor: An andante moderato, "serious, grave, at once firm and pliant, attaining real beauty" (Koechlin).
Improvisation in C minor: Orledge calls this piece a middle period "song without words". It was composed as a sight-reading test for the Conservatoire.
Fugue in E minor: See Fugue in A minor, above.
Allégresse in C major: "A bubbling perpetuum mobile whose surging romantic feelings are only just kept under restraint" (Orledge). "A song, pure and gay, ulifted to a sunlit sky, a youthful outpouring, full of happiness." (Koechlin).
Nocturne [No 8] in D major: As noted above, this piece stands apart from the larger-scale works to which Fauré gave the title "nocturne". It would not be listed among them were it not for the publisher's unauthorised use of the title in this case. It is the longest of the eight pieces of Op 84, but is much shorter and simpler than the other 12 nocturnes, consisting of a song-like main theme with a delicate semiquaver accompaniment in the left hand.
9 Préludes, Op 103
The nine préludes are among the least known of Fauré's major piano compositions. They were written while the composer was struggling to come to terms with the onset of deafness in his mid-sixties. By Fauré's standards this was a time of unusually prolific output. The préludes were composed in 1909 and 1910, in the middle of the period in which he wrote the opera PénélopePénélope
Pénélope is an opera in three acts by the French composer Gabriel Fauré. The libretto, by René Fauchois, is based on Homer's Odyssey. It was first performed at the Salle Garnier, Monte Carlo on 4 March 1913.-Background and performance history:...
, barcarolles Nos. 8–11 and nocturnes Nos. 9–11.
In Koechlin's view, "Apart from the Préludes of Chopin, it is hard to think of a collection of similar pieces that are so important". The critic Michael Oliver wrote, "Fauré's Préludes are among the subtlest and most elusive piano pieces in existence; they express deep but mingled emotions, sometimes with intense directness … more often with the utmost economy and restraint and with mysteriously complex simplicity." Jessica Duchen calls them "unusual slivers of magical inventiveness." The complete set takes between 20 and 25 minutes to play. The shortest of the set, No 8, lasts barely more than a minute; the longest, No 3, takes between four and five minutes.
Prélude No 1 in D major
Andante molto moderato. The first prélude is in the manner of a nocturne. Morrison refers to the cool serenity with which it opens, contrasted with the "slow and painful climbing" of the middle section.
Prélude No 2 in C minor
Allegro. The moto perpetuo of the second prélude is technically difficult for the pianist; even the most celebrated Fauré interpreter can be stretched by it. Koechlin calls it "a feverish whirling of dervishes, concluding in a sort of ecstasy, with the evocation of some fairy palace."
Prélude No 3 in G minor
Andante. Copland considered this prélude the most immediately accessible of the set. "At first, what will most attract you, will be the third in G-minor, a strange mixture of the romantic and classic." The musicologist Vladimir Jankélévitch
Vladimir Jankélévitch
Vladimir Jankélévitch was a French philosopher and musicologist.- Biography :Jankélévitch was the son of Russian Jewish parents, who had emigrated to France....
wrote, "it might be a barcarolle strangely interrupting a theme of very modern stylistic contour".
Prélude No 4 in F major
Allegretto moderato. The fourth prélude is among the gentlest of the set. The critic Alain Cochard writes that it "casts a spell on the ear through the subtlety of a harmony tinged with the modal and its melodic freshness." Koechlin calls it "a guileless pastorale, flexible, with succinct and refined modulations".
Prélude No 5 in D minor
Allegro. Cochard quotes the earlier writer Louis Aguettant's description of this prélude as "This fine outburst of anger (Ce bel accès de colère)". The mood is turbulent and anxious; the piece ends in quiet resignation reminiscent of the "Libera me" of the Requiem
Requiem (Fauré)
Gabriel Fauré composed his Requiem in D minor, Op. 48 between 1887 and 1890. This choral–orchestral setting of the Roman Catholic Mass for the Dead is the best known of his large works. The most famous movement is the soprano aria Pie Jesu...
.
Prélude No 6 in E minor
Andante. Fauré is at his most classical in this prélude, which is in the form of a canon
Canon (music)
In music, a canon is a contrapuntal composition that employs a melody with one or more imitations of the melody played after a given duration . The initial melody is called the leader , while the imitative melody, which is played in a different voice, is called the follower...
. Copland wrote that it "can be placed side by side with the most wonderful of the Preludes of the Well-Tempered Clavichord
The Well-Tempered Clavier
The Well-Tempered Clavier , BWV 846–893, is a collection of solo keyboard music composed by Johann Sebastian Bach...
."
Prélude No 7 in A major
Andante moderato. Morrison writes that this prélude, with its "stammering and halting progress" conveys an inconsolable grief. After the opening andante moderato, it becomes gradually more assertive, and subsides to conclude in the subdued mood of the opening. The rhythm of one of Fauré's best-known songs, "N'est-ce-pas?" from La bonne chanson
La Bonne Chanson
La bonne chanson is a collection of poems written by Paul Verlaine from the winter of 1869 to the spring of 1870. Twenty-one poems belong to this group, and are addressed to sixteen-year-old Mathilde Mauté de Fleurville, who he married in the same year .The poems are a proclamation of love, using...
, runs through the piece.
Prélude No 8 in C minor
Allegro. In Copland's view this is, with the third, the most approachable of the Préludes, "with its dry, acrid brilliance (so rarely found in Faure)." Morrison describes it as "a repeated-note scherzo" going "from nowhere to nowhere."
Prélude No 9 in E minor
Adagio. Copland described this prélude as "so simple – so absolutely simple that we can never hope to understand how it can contain such great emotional power." The prélude is withdrawn in mood; Jankélévitch wrote that it "belongs from beginning to end to another world." Koechlin notes echoes of the "Offertoire" of the Requiem throughout the piece.
For two pianists
Souvenirs de BayreuthSubtitled Fantasie en forme de quadrille sur les thèmes favoris de l'Anneau de Nibelung ("Fantasy in the form of a quadrille on favourite themes from Der Ring des Nibelungen
Der Ring des Nibelungen
Der Ring des Nibelungen is a cycle of four epic operas by the German composer Richard Wagner . The works are based loosely on characters from the Norse sagas and the Nibelungenlied...
"). Fauré admired the music of Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
and was familiar with the smallest details of his scores, but he was one of the few composers of his generation not to come under Wagner's musical influence.
From 1878, Fauré and his friend and ex-pupil André Messager
André Messager
André Charles Prosper Messager , was a French composer, organist, pianist, conductor and administrator. His stage compositions included ballets and 30 opéra comiques and operettas, among which Véronique, had lasting success, with Les p'tites Michu and Monsieur Beaucaire also enjoying international...
made trips abroad to see Wagner operas. They saw Das Rheingold
Das Rheingold
is the first of the four operas that constitute Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen . It was originally written as an introduction to the tripartite Ring, but the cycle is now generally regarded as consisting of four individual operas.Das Rheingold received its premiere at the National Theatre...
and Die Walküre
Die Walküre
Die Walküre , WWV 86B, is the second of the four operas that form the cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen , by Richard Wagner...
at Cologne Opera
Cologne Opera
The Cologne Opera refers both to the main opera house in Cologne, Germany and to its resident opera company.-History of the company:...
; the complete Ring cycle in Munich and London; and Die Meistersinger
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg is an opera in three acts, written and composed by Richard Wagner. It is among the longest operas still commonly performed today, usually taking around four and a half hours. It was first performed at the Königliches Hof- und National-Theater in Munich, on June 21,...
in Munich and at Bayreuth
Bayreuth Festival
The Bayreuth Festival is a music festival held annually in Bayreuth, Germany, at which performances of operas by the 19th century German composer Richard Wagner are presented...
, where they also saw Parsifal
Parsifal
Parsifal is an opera in three acts by Richard Wagner. It is loosely based on Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival, the 13th century epic poem of the Arthurian knight Parzival and his quest for the Holy Grail, and on Chrétien de Troyes' Perceval, the Story of the Grail.Wagner first conceived the work...
. They frequently performed as a party piece their joint composition, the irreverent Souvenirs de Bayreuth, written in about 1888. This short, skittish piano work for four hands sends up themes from The Ring. It consists of five short sections in which Wagner's themes are transformed into dance rhythms. The manuscript (in the Bibliothèque nationale
Bibliothèque nationale de France
The is the National Library of France, located in Paris. It is intended to be the repository of all that is published in France. The current president of the library is Bruno Racine.-History:...
, Paris) is in Massenet's hand.
Suite d'orchestre, Op 20
Between 1867 and 1873, Fauré wrote a symphonic work for full orchestra. The piece was first heard in 1873 when Fauré and Saint-Saens performed it in a two-piano version, but that transcription has not survived. Léon Boëllmann
Léon Boëllmann
Léon Boëllmann was a French composer of Alsatian origin, known for a small number of compositions for organ. His best-known composition is Suite Gothique , still very much a staple of the organ repertoire, especially its dramatic concluding Toccata.-Biography:The son of a pharmacist, Boëllmann was...
made a new transcription of the first movement in 1893.
Dolly Suite, Op 56
The Dolly Suite is a six-section work for piano duet
Piano four-hands
Piano four hands is a specific form of duet for a single piano with two players. A duet with the players playing separate instruments is a piano duo....
. It was inspired by Hélène, nicknamed "Dolly", daughter of the singer Emma Bardac
Emma Bardac
Emma Bardac , née Moyse, was the mutual love interest of both Gabriel Fauré and Claude Debussy. Of Jewish descent, Emma married, aged 17, Parisian banker Sigismond Bardac, by whom she had two children, Raoul, and Hélène . Emma was an accomplished singer and brilliant conversationalist...
with whom Fauré was intimately associated in the 1890s. The opening piece was a present for Dolly's first birthday, and Fauré added the other five pieces to mark her subsequent birthdays and other family occasions. Unusually for Fauré, who generally favoured strictly functional titles, the movements of the suite have whimsical titles associated with Dolly and her family.
Its six movements take about fifteen minutes to perform. The first is a Berceuse, or cradle-song. "Mi-a-ou", despite a title suggesting a cat, in fact represents the infant Dolly's attempts to pronounce the name of her brother Raoul; after "Le jardin de Dolly", the "Kitty Valse", again confounds its feline title, being a sketch of the family's pet dog. After the gentle "Tendresse", the suite ends with a lively evocation of Spain, which, Orledge notes, is one of Fauré's few purely extrovert pieces.Orledge, p. 95
Masques et bergamasques, Op 112
From the orchestral suite drawn from his music for the stage presentation Masques et bergamasques, Fauré made a transcription for piano duet, which was published in 1919. Like the orchestral suite, it consists of four movements, titled "Ouverture", "Menuet", "Gavotte" and "Pastorale".
Recordings
Fauré made piano rollPiano roll
A piano roll is a music storage medium used to operate a player piano, piano player or reproducing piano. A piano roll is a continuous roll of paper with perforations punched into it. The peforations represent note control data...
s of his music for several companies between 1905 and 1913. The rolls that survive are of the "Romance sans paroles" No. 3, Barcarolle No. 1, Prelude No. 3, Nocturne No. 3, Thème et variations, Valses-caprices Nos. 1, 3 and 4, and piano versions of the Pavane, and the "Sicilienne" from Fauré's music for Pelléas and Mélisande. Several rolls have been re-recorded for CD. Recordings on disc were few until the 1940s. A survey by John Culshaw
John Culshaw
John Royds Culshaw OBE was a pioneering English classical record producer for Decca Records. He recorded a wide range of music, but is best known for masterminding the first studio recording of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, begun in 1958.Largely self-educated musically, Culshaw worked for...
in December 1945 singled out recordings of piano works played by Kathleen Long
Kathleen Long
Kathleen Long CBE was a British pianist and teacher. She was an awarded soloist, but was also a much appreciated chamber music player and recitalist. Her tours included Europe, North America and South Africa....
, including the Nocturne No. 6, Barcarolle No. 2, the Thème et Variations, Op. 73, and the Ballade Op. 19 in its orchestral version. Fauré's music began to appear more frequently in the record companies' releases in the 1950s.
In the LP and particularly the CD era, the record companies built up a substantial catalogue of Fauré's piano music, performed by French and non-French musicians. The piano works were first recorded largely complete in the mid 1950s by Germaine Thyssens-Valentin
Germaine Thyssens-Valentin
Germaine Thyssens-Valentin was a classical pianist of Franco-Dutch parentage, noted for her performances of French music...
, with later sets being made by Jean-Philippe Collard
Jean-Philippe Collard
Jean-Philippe Collard is a renowned French pianist who is known for his interpretations of the works of Gabriel Fauré and Camille Saint-Saëns.Born into a musical family, he started playing the piano at age five...
(1974), Paul Crossley
Paul Crossley
Paul Crossley is a British pianist.Born in Dewsbury, Yorkshire, his piano teacher was Fanny Waterman in Leeds. While a student at Mansfield College, Oxford, he was discovered by Olivier Messiaen and his wife Yvonne Loriod, who heard him play and immediately invited him to come to Paris to study...
(1984–85), Jean Hubeau
Jean Hubeau
Jean Hubeau was a French pianist, composer and pedagogue.- Biography :Admitted at the age of 9 years to the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, he studied composition with Paul Dukas, piano with Lazare Lévy, harmony with Jean Gallon, and counterpoint with Noël Gallon...
(1988–89), and Kathryn Stott
Kathryn Stott
Kathryn Stott is a British classical pianist who performs as a concerto soloist, recitalist and chamber musician. Her specialities include the English and French classical repertoire, contemporary classical music and the tango...
(1995). Recital selections of major piano works have been recorded by many pianists including Pascal Rogé
Pascal Rogé
Pascal Rogé is a French pianist. His playing includes the works of compatriot composers Saint-Saëns, Fauré, Debussy, Ravel, Satie, and Poulenc, among others. However, his repertoire also covers the German masters Haydn, Mozart, Brahms, and Beethoven.- Biography :Rogé first appeared in public in...
(1990), and Kun-Woo Paik
Kun-Woo Paik
Kun-woo Paik is a South Korean pianist.-Early life:Kun Woo Paik was born in Seoul. he gave his first concert, aged 10, with the Korean National Orchestra . In the following years he performed many important works in Korea, including several premieres such as Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition...
(2002).