Faure's Piano Trio

[Rach3]

I have several of Gabriel Faure’s ( 1845 -1924 ) chamber works, but had not heard his Piano Trio, Op.120 ( 1923) before, a wonderfully lyrical, uncomplicated work for late - Faure, here the ATOS Trio , live video from a performance in Berlin, 2020:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FS3oDLxslZA ( 18 minutes )

I acquired an mp3 from Presto by the Beaux Arts Trio,from their 1988 Philips cd.

A comment posted at YT by the ATOS Trio :

"..and so one says good-bye, little by little..." (Faure in a letter to his son)

Gabriel Faure was 78 years old when he composed his only Piano Trio, op.120. Almost at the end of his life and ouvre, the aging composer could not hear anymore and was almost blind. At the heart of this trio is a tender Andantino, which must be one of the most beautiful, "innig" moments in all of French Chamber music, this simple and haunting work Faure composed first, and then conceived and placed the other movements around it. The complex harmonies, strange colors and heartbreaking simplicity combined with an immense passion for life and an almost stubborn sense of inner strength makes this a typical example of Faure´s late works. A critic remarked, upon hearing the first performance of op.120: "...where indeed will he go, if he should become a hundred years old?"

[diegobueno]

This is real connoisseur's music. Really exquisite. I think if Charlie the Tuna had really wanted to impress the Star Kist people with his good taste he would have let them see him listening to this music.

But of course they didn't want tunas with good taste; they wanted tunas that taste good.

Anyway, you don't need to be a tuna with a death wish to enjoy this.

[Lance]

Have a number of recordings of this work. Love most everything of Fauré.

[maestrob]

Have a number of recordings of this work. Love most everything of Fauré.

Yes, I do too.

The only chamber music of Faure's that doesn't sit quite right in my ears is his Op. 121 String Quartet, a work where Faure uses some experimental harmonies which sound grating to the ear.

I made my debut as a paid soloist in Faure's sublime Requiem when I was 19 in front of a congregation of 800 souls in the local Baptist church in the Main Line town where I grew up. At the time Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau had made the only recording on LP of that work, and he was my hero.

Been listening to Eric Heidsieck's recently reissued traversal of his Nocturnes as well, while playing through the box of that artist's complete recordings for Erato. Heidsieck finds wonderful depth and meaning in these neglected masterpieces, and it's past time for his recordings to be made available again.