Fauré: Arpège, Op. 76 No. 2 (Samain)

A fascinating release featuring songs written between 1888 and 1904 and two separate songs from 1906. This CD covers 18 years of composition, roughly Faure’s ‘second style’, which just happened to be the radiant years for his piano catalogue.

“A little more than ten years ago I discovered the late works of Gabriel Fauré, and particularly the sumptuous cycle La Chanson d’Ève. A decade later, I still traverse with the same pleasure the intensely expressive luxuriance of these songs and their exhilarating harmonic density. La Chanson d’Ève, like Le Jardin clos and the other songs we wished to include in this recording, expresses an extreme refinement capable of going straight to the heart of the matter, sometimes with a disarming simplicity, but invariably underpinned by a flawless structure. They are among the works to which I feel very close today, at once nourished by them and inspired by the urge to share the profound enjoyment they give me. After ten years of complicity with the pianist Hélène Lucas, the time has come to invest our pleasure, our enthusiasm and the end result of all our hard work in a disc which is both a challenge and, above all, an immense source of delight for us.” Karine Deshayes