Fauré: Romances sans paroles (3), Op. 17 (Three Songs Without Words)

Penguim 3 Star Award

“Pennetier focuses on the intimate nature of some of Faure's loveliest early piano works, casting them in a serious light. A beautiful selection, sympathetically played, if sometimes a little ponderous.” BBC Music Magazine, December 2011 ****

“In the Second Nocturne we are pleasantly roused by a sudden urgency of effect - this is about as fiery as Faure gets, and Pennetier doesn't hold back...The First Impromptu is a really strong reading also; one might actually say that this is ideal Faure playing: buoyant, smiling, flexible, yet majestic where needed.” International Record Review, February 2012

“These are the urbane descendants of Chopin's pianistic brilliants, gentlemanly and understated. Charles Owen's beautifully judged and articulated performance deftly reveals the intricacy of Fauré's craft without loss of line, from the seemingly carefree balletic shimmer of the 1885 G flat major to the darker harmonies of the 1915 E flat major.” The Independent on Sunday, 3rd July 2011

“Owen is the least insistent or interventionalist of pianists. He never invests the music with undue weight or significance. His performances glide gracefully, often in near strict tempo on their own momentum, quite without distortion or idiosyncrasy.” Gramophone Magazine, September 2011

“Fauré's piano music is at last emerging in its full measure of energy and brilliance. Charles Owen buys enthusiastically into this truer picture of the music...On the technical front Owen is absolutely secure, with fine observation of the music's often multiple layering” BBC Music Magazine, September 2011 ****

“Owens gives beautifully measured accounts of these charming works, enjoying the lavishness of the writing but carefully teasing out the all-important melodies with a silver spoon. He makes enterprising use of the pedals, and the colour evinced in Nos. 1, 3 and 6 are particularly charismatic.” International Record Review, September 2011

“Jean Martin is obviously at home here.” Penguin Guide

“Fauré's piano works are among the most subtly daunting in all keyboard literature. Encompassing Fauré's entire creative life, they range through an early, finely wrought eroticism via sporting with an aerial virtuosity as teasing and light as the elements themselves (the Valsescaprices) to the final desolation of his last years.
There, in his most powerful works ( Barcarolles Nos 7-11, Nocturnes Nos 11-13), he faithfully mirrors a pain that 'scintillates in full consciousness', a romantic agony prompted by increasing deafness and a lack of recognition that often seemed close to oblivion. Few compositions have reflected a darker night of the soul, and Fauré's anguish, expressed in both numbing resignation and unbridled anger, could surely only be exorcised by the articulation of such profound and disturbing emotional complexity.
The task for the pianist, then, is immense, but in Kathryn Stott Fauré has a subtle and fearless champion. How thrilled Fauré would have been by the sheer immediacy of Stott's responses.
Time and again she throws convention to the winds, and although it would be surprising if all her performances were consistent successes, disappointments are rare. Sometimes her rubato and luxuriant pedalling soften the outlines of Fauré's starkest, most austere utterances. But such quibbles remain quibbles. The Fourth Nocturne is gloriously supple, and the 13 Barcarolles show Stott acutely responsive to passion and finesse alike. The Pièces brèves, too, are played with rare affection. Stott proves herself a stylish and intriguing pianist.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010