To mark the 75th birthday of Pascal Rogé, Decca Classics releases a new all-Fauré album, alongside The Complete Decca Recordings, a comprehensive 43-CD box set documenting his recorded legacy for the label.

Released just ahead of the pianist’s birthday, Rogé’s new album is devoted entirely to the music of Gabriel Fauré and features his first ever complete recording of the composer’s 13 Barcarolles. One of the most demanding and elusive cycles in the French piano repertoire, the Barcarolles span almost fifty years of Fauré’s compositional life. The programme is completed by the Dolly Suite for piano four hands, performed with Rogé’s wife and long-time duo partner Elena Font.

Rogé has long been celebrated as one of the finest exponents of French piano music. When Decca Classics’ A&R Director, Dominic Fyfe, invited Rogé to make a new disc for his 75th birthday, his immediate answer was the music of Fauré.

“I wanted to do something consistent, through which we could show the artistry and the genius of Fauré,” Rogé says in a booklet interview with Jessica Duchen. “The Barcarolles offered a journey through his entire life as a composer, from the early works to the very last pieces.”

The album was recorded in Paris at the Église de Saint-Pierre, chosen for its acoustic and atmosphere. Rogé later discovered a personal connection to the venue: it was there that his mother began her career as an organist, a discovery that added an unexpected emotional dimension to the sessions.

Rogé’s approach to sound and colour remains central to his playing. “I feel like a painter when I play. I see colours when I play and I try to add different ones. I use a lot of imagination: I will see nature, temperature, the wind, the moon. I need, always, to put an image behind the sound.”