Fauré: Cello Sonata No. 1 in D minor, Op. 109

Fauré’s musical language bridged a gap between 19th-century Romanticism and the music that appeared with the new century, developing and evolving, but retaining its own fundamental characteristics.

His gift for melody, subtle harmonic idiom, judicious and highly personal use of contemporary innovations make for enriching listening, whether in the popular Sicilienne, Pavane and other short pieces or in his two tuneful and impeccably crafted Cello Sonatas.

Since receiving top prizes, including the Diploma of the Tchaikovsky Competition, Moscow, and First Prize of the International Cello Competition Belgrade, Ina-Esther Joost Ben-Sasson has been in high demand as a soloist all over the world.

Following their triumphant Casals Encores disc, Alban Gerhardt and Cecile Licad are reunited for Fauré’s music for cello and piano. The two cello sonatas are among the masterpieces of the cello repertoire, looking back to the nineteenth century but also with an edginess that may well reflect the time in which they were written—during and immediately after the First World War. Remarkably, Fauré was in his seventies by the time he wrote them. There’s some debate as to how fast the last movement of the first sonata should go—so Alban Gerhardt has recorded two alternative versions, to be programmed to the listener’s taste.

Alongside the sonatas are some of Fauré’s most seductive bon-bons, including the famous Sicilienne and Élégie, and the so-called Papillon (so-named at his publisher’s insistence and much to Fauré’s annoyance—he hated fluffy titles).

Alban Gerhardt is of course a Hyperion regular and this is his ninth album for the label.

Following the successful edition of Schumann’s complete works, Eric Le Sage and Alpha have decided to produce a new series of 5 CDs dedicated to Gabriel Fauré’s complete works for chamber music with piano. This series in general and its first volume in particular, constitute a milestone in Alpha’s development as they are the first of a line devoted to music from the post-Mozart period. Each volume will be placed in the literary context of the time in which it was created through fragments taken from novels, poems or the correspondence of artists. Eric Le Sage will work on this series together with François Salque with whom he shares a great musical affinity. Sound engineer Jean-Marc Laisné (who recorded the integral works of Schumann) will record the pieces in the auditorium of Grenoble, a hall famous for its acoustics. Through the combination of their talents, these men will breathe new life into these well known pieces. There is no doubt this series, just like the recordings of Schumann’s complete works, will become a reference on the classical music scene.

Fauré’s two cello sonatas are compact, beautifully written works whose musical language, with its many subtle changes of tonality and gift for melody, has been described as conveying ‘the power of tranquil thought’. Written in the summer of 1917, during the First World War, the neglected First Sonata begins with a troubled Allegro, followed by an eloquent Andante and a sparkling Finale. The C minor Andante of the Second Sonata has its origin in a Chant funèbre commissioned for the celebration in May 1921 of the centenary of the death of Napoleon. This recital also includes an arrangement of the ever-popular song Après un rêve, as well as the virtuosic Papillon.

Born in 1845, the French composer and organist Gabriel Fauré is now acknowledged as one of the most important writers of chamber music of his period. The delicate and elegant style of his music, redolent of the salons of Parisian high-society, is underpinned by a core of emotional depth and an often adventurous approach to harmony. Although he did not compose a great deal of music for the solo cello, he seems to have had a special affinity for the instrument and its lyrical qualities. It is therefore no surprise that these works have become favourites with both audiences and performers. This recording contains all the pieces originally written by Fauré for cello and piano, including one of his most beautiful and enduring short compositions, the “Elégie”, opus 24, and the two sonatas, opus 109 and 119.

The Cello Sonata No. 1 in D minor, Op. 109 is a fascinating and unsettling product of those dark days of the First World War. Fauré’s youngest son was in the army and it is not hard to hear something of his father’s anxiety in the sonata. The Cello Sonata No. 2 in G minor, Op. 117 was written between March and November 1921 and this happier time is reflected in more contented music. Fauré’s friend Vincent d’Indy, spoke for many when he complimented his fellow composer on the sheer ‘youthfulness’ of this music: ‘plus the mastery of maturity. And it’s so beautiful!’ These works are here joined by Nocturne No. 13 in B minor, Op. 119, completed after the death of Fauré’s closest friend, Camille Saint-Saëns. It was Fauré’s last solo piano work and completed the second of two great work cycles, the Barcarolles and Nocturnes, which between them chart the course of Fauré’s composing life and contain some of the composer’s most intimate thoughts. The Thirteenth Nocturne is as well the summation of the two sets. ‘Its grip is so powerful’, wrote the great French pianist Yvonne Lefébure, ‘that there is no place for rational explanation…, it is the only example of a work in which not a single note could be changed or removed’. Completing the disc is the Piano Trio in D minor, Op. 120, which despite its moments of drama unfolds with an easy-flowing serenity.