Fauré wrote few orchestral works and so EMI
are to be congratulated in assembling this fine 2 CD set of reissues.
Michel Plasson and his Toulouse players capture the sophistication and
delicate refinement of this lovely music. The Pelléas et Mélisande
and Masques et Bergamasques suites are well known. The
spellbinding limpid beauty of ‘The Spinning Girl’ and the catchy dance
rhythms of the Masques et Bergamasques Gavotte, for instance
and, of course, that haunting Pavane. But also on CD1 we have
the unusual bonuses of vocals in both suites: Frederica von Stade’s
lovely wistful and achingly sad ‘Mélisande’s Song’; and Nicolai
Gedda’s beautifully enunciated and shaped ‘The Sweetest Road’ and ‘Clair
de lune’ - both ravishing creations. Added to these riches is the less
well-known Shylock (1889) music. The opening ‘Song’ opens with
shadowy string figures lightened by harp filigree before the entry of
Nicolai Gedda’s thrilling ardent tones. The ‘Entr'acte’ is cast in heroic,
chivalric mode unusual for Fauré but highly effective for its
contrasting tender passages. The short ‘Madrigal’ is another delightful
romantic solo from Gedda with a refined light-as-air accompaniment.
The melodious ‘Epithalame’, with its bittersweet violin solo, is dreamily
introspective while the ‘Nocturne’ is another of Fauré’s magical
evocations. The ‘Finale’ is another gem richly orchestrated with intriguing
operetta-like martial figures and interesting pizzicatos.
CD2 is devoted mainly to concerto-type and choral material.
Jean-Phillipe Collard is the soloist in Fauré’s Ballade
for piano and orchestra (1881). It was originally composed for piano
only. Liszt declared it too difficult to play! Many moods are encompassed
over its 14 minute span ranging from the intense to the playful. Collard
rises well to its overt and subtle challenges. Collard is also the soloist
in Fauré’s late work, his Fantaisie (first performed in
1919) an autumnal work fully imbued with Fauré’s nostalgia and
wistfulness but with moments of turbulence too. Cellist, Paul Tortelier
is the eloquent soloist in the mournful Élégie (1880)
that also has moments of wistfulness and anguish; and Yan Pascal Tortelier
makes the lovely lyrical Berceuse, for violin and orchestra,
with its familiar delicate melody, sing sweetly.
The main item in the CD2 programme is the incidental
music Fauré wrote for Caligula by Alexandre Dumas (author
of The Three Musketeers). Dumas’s play was about the cruel, tyrannical
Roman Emperor of the title. The suite opens with imposing majestic fanfares
and a proud, bouncy march contrasted with more relaxed, more intimate
material. A choral interjection, with heavy percussive ostinato seems
to speak of the might of the Empire before their tone moderates to more
tender pliant material. The women then tenderly sing the evocative ‘L’hiver
s’enfuit’. The first ‘Melodrama and Chorus’ begins in sweet nostalgia
before the tempo picks up to a joyful dance-rhythm that dips in and
out of the shadows while the chorus sensitively picks up its alternating
light and shade accordingly. Shadows close in on the second of the ‘Melodrama
and Chorus’ movements with the women’s voices in a typical Fauré
mood of sweet dejection. The ‘Air de danse’ is one of Fauré’s
most beautiful melodies, one can imagine a dainty dance by young Roman
maidens. The Ensemble Vocal Alix Bourbon also star in Fauré’s
somewhat stormily evocative Les Djinns. The djinns were an order
of spirits rather lower than angels which could transform themselves
into humans or animals. The concert is completed by the Orchestre du
Capitole de Toulouse playing Fauré’s Prelude to Pénélope,
his opera about the return of Ulysses, the king of Greek mythology,
to his faithful wife Penelope. This is narrative music par excellence
suggestive of the grieving sad lonely wife dreaming of the heroic
horn call that will announce the return of her hero.
This enterprising programme mixes Fauré’s more
celebrated works (in more complete versions than normally recorded)
with much less familiar material. Michel Plasson, his soloists, and
the Toulouse players perform these lovely, wistful works with devotion
and sensitivity. Unhesitatingly recommended.
Ian Lace
