Apres un reve: A Faure Recital
£14.49
In stock - available for despatch within 1 working day
Despatch Information
This despatch estimate is based on information from both our own stock and the UK supplier's stock.
If ordering multiple items, we will aim to send everything together so the longest despatch estimate will apply to the complete order.
If you would rather receive certain items more quickly, please place them on a separate order.
If any unexpected delays occur, we will keep you informed of progress via email and not allow other items on the order to be held up.
If you would prefer to receive everything together regardless of any delay, please let us know via email.
Pre-orders will be despatched as close as possible to the release date.
Label: Chandos
Cat No: CHAN10915
Format: CD
Number of Discs: 1
Genre: Instrumental
Release Date: 2nd September 2016
Contents
Works
Barcarolles (13)Nocturne no.6 in D flat major, op.63
Pavane, op.50 (arr. Louis Lortie)
Pelleas et Melisande Suite, op.80
Songs (3), op.7
Artists
Louis Lortie (piano)Works
Barcarolles (13)Nocturne no.6 in D flat major, op.63
Pavane, op.50 (arr. Louis Lortie)
Pelleas et Melisande Suite, op.80
Songs (3), op.7
Artists
Louis Lortie (piano)About
As he states in the booklet notes, ‘this album purposely travels through Fauré's various creative periods, from easily appealing early pieces such as the Pavane and the mélodie “Après un rêve” through to the late and unjustly neglected Préludes, a masterpiece of condensed harmonic and melodic audacity.’
Released after four volumes in an ongoing Chopin series – ‘an exceptionally high order of playing’ (BBC Music) – this album, besides the masterful late Op.103 Préludes, unsurprisingly features in Lortie’s words ‘the romantic, post-Chopinesque genres of the Nocturnes and Barcarolles along with path-breaking small forms of neoclassical aesthetics such as the suite from Pelléas et Mélisande, here in a solo piano version highlighting the ambiguity of a canvas of pianistic and orchestral colourings that would be a major influence on Fauré’s successors’.
Sound/Video
Paused
-
1Pavane, Op. 50 (Arr. L. Lortie For Piano)
-
2Barcarolle No. 5 In F-Sharp Minor, Op. 66
-
3Nocturne No. 4 In E-Flat Major, Op. 36
-
4Barcarolle No. 6 In E-Flat Major, Op. 70
-
5Apres Un Reve, Op. 7, No. 1 (Arr. P. Grainger For Piano)
-
6Pelleas et Melisande Suite, Op. 80 (Version For Piano) - I. Prelude
-
7Pelleas et Melisande Suite, Op. 80 (Version For Piano) - III. Sicilienne
-
8Pelleas et Melisande Suite, Op. 80 (Version For Piano) - II. Fileuse
-
9Pelleas et Melisande Suite, Op. 80 (Version For Piano) - IV. La Mort De Melisande
-
10Barcarolle No. 7 In D Minor, Op. 90
-
11Nocturne No. 6 In D-Flat Major, Op. 63
-
12Preludes, Op. 103 - Prelude No. 1
-
13Preludes, Op. 103 - Prelude No. 2
-
14Preludes, Op. 103 - Prelude No. 3
-
15Preludes, Op. 103 - Prelude No. 4
-
16Preludes, Op. 103 - Prelude No. 5
-
17Preludes, Op. 103 - Prelude No. 6
-
18Preludes, Op. 103 - Prelude No. 7
-
19Preludes, Op. 103 - Prelude No. 8
-
20Preludes, Op. 103 - Prelude No. 9
Europadisc Review
Lortie opens with his own splendidly effective arrangement of one of Fauré’s most popular pieces, the Pavane, op.50. This piano version demonstrates, arguably even more effectively than the piano-chorus original or the orchestral version, why this work appealed so much to the younger generation – Debussy and Ravel – that it spawned their equally famous works in the form. Another arrangement of a firm audience favourite is Percy Grainger’s piano transcription of the mélodie, Après un rêve, op.7 no.1: it’s a beautiful, spellbinding tribute from a composer of whom Fauré had exclaimed, ‘He’s got lots of go… He’s a ball of energy’.
Another familiar item here is the Suite from Pelléas et Melisande, the incidental music Fauré wrote for Mrs Patrick Campbell’s 1898 London performances of Maeterlinck’s drama. Three of the movements are heard in the composer’s own original piano versions, and Lortie’s playing is gorgeously evocative of both the play’s atmosphere and the contemporary zeitgeist, not least in the gently lilting Sicilienne. A fourth movement (no.2 in the conventional numbering, placed third here) is Alfred Cortot’s arrangement of the Spinning Song, delicate runs giving way to undercurrents of unease.
The meat of Lortie’s recital, however, comes in the ‘real’ piano works. Two forms that were particularly close to Fauré’s heart were the Nocturne and the Barcarolle, which he imbued with his own subtly daring harmonies and textures to remove any hint of pre-existing templates. Here Lortie presents Nocturnes nos 4 and 6 and Barcarolles 5, 6 and 7 with matchless sensitivity. The impassioned E flat Barcarolle, op.70, and the D flat Nocturne, op.63, with its magically iridescent central section, are particularly fine under Lortie’s hands, demonstrating the expressive depths of Fauré’s music at the height of his maturity.
Arguably the real highlight here, for connoisseurs at least, is the closing collection of the nine Préludes, op.103, which were among Fauré’s last piano works. Their harmonic complexities are matched here by playing of real insight as well as technical skill, the latter evident particularly in the virtuosic nos 2 in C sharp minor and 5 in D minor. But it is the elusive final Prélude, an E minor Largo, that lingers longest after the disc has stopped playing, seemingly opening up onto uncharted vistas. Here, as elsewhere on this disc, Lortie achieves enviable expressive depth without resorting to extremes – model playing for this repertoire.
There are excellent, detailed notes from French music expert Roger Nichols, a short note from Lortie himself (in which he dedicates the disc to his late teacher Yvonne Hubert, herself a Fauré pupil), and admirable recorded presence for Lortie’s Fazioli piano. In short, this is a mightily impressive start to what promises to be an exceptionally interesting series.
Error on this page? Let us know here
Need more information on this product? Click here