Topic: Gabriel Fauré (Faure)

[The Emperor]

So any fans here?
I got to say i love his chamber music and piano works.
I actually prefer his nocturnes to chopin's, am i insane? 

Discuss!

[Mark]

For Faure, I'd go with his songs and his Requiem.

[The Emperor]

Oh Yes, i absolutely love the requiem!

[Mark]

Oh Yes, i absolutely love the requiem!

Get the version on Naxos. More intimate (as Faure envisaged it, according to the sleevenotes) than many others I've heard.

[The new erato]

.
I actually prefer his nocturnes to chopin's, am i insane? 

No. Songs and chamber music primarily for me though,  am slowly getting aquainted with his piano music, so understated and bare with this powerful passion beneath the surface, occasionally erupting.

[PSmith08]

My preferred recording of Fauré's Requiem is Celibidache's on EMI (coupled with the Stravinsky Symphonie des psaumes). Celibidache manages to create a sound that is, to my ears, perfectly suited to the score. There is a sense of peace, created both by Fauré's decision to do without the fire-and-brimstone scenes and by Celibidache's careful phrasing and broad, architectural approach to it. It probably isn't too idiomatic, but I'm not enough of a Fauré scholar to make that call, but I think it's fairly true to the spirit of the score.

[Harry]

That would be the chambermusic, most of it anyway.

[BachQ]

I love the Sanctus from the Requiem

[71 dB]

So any fans here?
I got to say i love his chamber music and piano works.
I actually prefer his nocturnes to chopin's, am i insane? 

Discuss!

Yeah, I am definitely fan of Fauré!

Stunning chamber music. It's not insane to prefer Fauré's Nocturnes to those of Chopin, I do that too.

Requiem is the most beautiful of then all.

Fauré is among the finest French composers.

[The Emperor]

The 12 nocturne is just amazing, love the 1st aswell, the 2nd, hell they are all good.
I agree, you can see the chopin influence there, but to me he takes it to another level, so much more going on, much more exciting to my ears.

[71 dB]

Faure's harmonic adventurousness and tendency for unexpected modulations create a dreamy, restless and elusive quality...

True, very true. Fauré's play on harmony is delicious!

[Mark]

Quick 'heads-up' for fans of Faure's Requiem and Cantique de Jean Racine: I'm uploading both works from this Saturday's BBC Prom concert. In about 45 minutes or so, the links will be in the Proms 2007 thread.

[Josquin des Prez]

I actually prefer his nocturnes to chopin's, am i insane? 

No, just boring.

Not that his piano music isn't great, though i tend to prefer his chamber works.

BTW, if you like Faure, don't miss out on George Enescu. The latter is to the first what Brahms was to Schumann...

[Solitary Wanderer]

This is the only Faure that I have so far. The Requiem on SACD. Its sublime

[Tsaraslondon]

This is the only Faure that I have so far. The Requiem on SACD. Its sublime

Exactly the performance of the Requiem I was going to suggest. It's the best of the 3 I own (the other 2 I have for their couplings) and I think the best I've ever heard.

I also love the Masques et Begamasgues suite and the Pelleas et Melisande suite. And the songs are just lovely, both to perform and listen to.

[val]

I prefer Fauré's chamber music. The violin sonatas, in special the first, the superb piano Trio, the string Quartet, the two piano Quartets and, above all, the two piano Quintets, to me the absolute masterpieces of Fauré.

Regarding the songs I am not so enthusiastic. Some are beautiful, "Au cemitière", "La Bonne Chanson", "Mirages", but in general I prefer the songs of Duparc, Chausson or Ravel.

In the piano music, the best are the Nocturnes and the Thème et Variations.

The opera Penélope has very beautiful moments (almost all the 2nd act), but I think it has not the power, the dramatic urge that the subject would deserve.

[Tsaraslondon]

Regarding the songs I am not so enthusiastic. Some are beautiful, "Au cemitière", "La Bonne Chanson", "Mirages", but in general I prefer the songs of Duparc, Chausson or Ravel.

I too love the songs of Duparc and Ravel, and also those of Debussy. But, though I do enjoy Chausson's songs, I would suggest that Faure was both more important as a song writer and more prolific. Apart from those you mention there are also such gems as Chanson d'Amour, Nell, the triptych Poeme d'un jour, Les berceaux, Notre amour, Les Roses d'Ispahan, Le secret, and, to my mind, the best rendition of Verlaine's Clair de lune. Other contributors will no doubt have other favourites. Fortunately, his song repertoire is well represented in the catalogue.

[Larry Rinkel]

The chamber music is superb. But I see no point in preferring Fauré's nocturnes to Chopin's, or vice versa.

[The Emperor]

The chamber music is superb. But I see no point in preferring Fauré's nocturnes to Chopin's, or vice versa.

Yeh, no point, just a matter of taste, that's all.

[Steve]

I've always been rather fond of his piano sonatas.