The Fauré sonatas
are seldom coupled together but when
they are it’s usually by chamber musicians
and ones moreover of taste and understanding.
Critics have generally so relied on
the Early=Lyric, Late=Cryptic dichotomy
with regard to his chamber works that
it takes a brave musician to cry wolf.
Since I’ve always been astounded that
anyone should think the E minor Sonata
"difficult" or – as I read
in a book only yesterday – "gnomic"
I read Roy Howat’s refreshing notes
with fellow feeling. "A youthful
intensity redolent of the First Sonata,
despite all the distance Fauré
had travelled meanwhile" Howat
writes, and Amen, Brother to that. He
plays it thus, as well, along with his
chamber and sonata colleague, the German
violinist Alban Beikircher.
The Second Sonata seems
to me the better performance. The Op.13
is attractive but the first movement
is a little slow and one’s ear is drawn
more to Howat than to Beikircher, whose
elegant reticence is not always to the
work’s advantage. He tends to stress
the dolce aspects of the Sonata and
to underplay the assertive independence
of the violin’s line. I also felt the
Scherzo might have been just that bit
tighter – it’s very tender and withdrawn
in the central panel but not quite terpsichorean
in the outer parts. There’s certainly
no lack of youthfulness in the Second
Sonata, as I said, with adroit pianism
to the fore and an Andante crafted and
sculpted with decisive lyricism and
a finale light, lissom and fine. If
you really do think it so impenetrable
I suggest you take a listen to Beikircher
and Howat and let’s hope they can kick
some critical commonplaces into touch.
There are some charming
morceaux to complete the disc, a couple
in arrangements by Howat. The Andante
is the most sheerly interesting from
a musico-historical perspective because
it’s derived from the middle movement
of the discarded Violin Concerto. The
Morceau de lecture was written for the
Paris Conservatoire’s sight-reading
test. Howat has arranged the Sicilienne
and its strong accents and delightful
lilt suits this version well (the dedicatee
of the Cello and Piano version, the
English cellist W H Squire, recorded
it and some enterprising company should
reissue that Columbia for a taste of
authentic Fauré). The Air de
dance from Caligula is also here in
Howat’s arrangement and makes a pleasing
end piece. Good sound and notes with
which I agree.
Jonathan Woolf
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Alban Beikircher (violin) 
