Search - Gabriel Faure, Grant Johannesen :: Fauré: Complete Works for Piano, Vol. 1

Fauré with a Light Touch

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 01/28/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"There was a time when Fauré was referred to as 'the French Brahms.' That comparison is not a particularly apt one; one of the few things their music has in common is a fondness for first inversion chords in the bass line. But some players must have taken the comparison to heart because it is all too common for Fauré's piano music to be played with a bit of a heavy hand. It does not help that on the printed page the music often looks dense and almost Germanic. Still, if one had to characterize Fauré's piano music in a word, it would be the one coined so delightfully by musicologist Eric Blom: 'semiquaverish.' Fauré's music is indeed filled with gossamer sixteenth-note runs. That is particularly so in some of the works played here--the Eight 'Pièces Brèves', say, with their polyphonic tracery and slightly perfumed harmonies. Grant Johannesen has long been renowned for his affinity for French music. In this recording made originally for Golden Crest in 1961 but released here in limpid sound by VAI he brings lucidity and brilliance, and always a light touch, to these and the other pieces contained herein. He understands that Fauré, for all his learning, composed music that should be played with elegance and understatement. Just listen to the two fugues included in the 'Pièces Brèves' and you'll understand what I mean. One is first struck by the charm and ease of the music (and the playing) and only later does one realize the skill involved in the counterpoint.



Indeed, the primary contents of this disc come from Fauré's lightest music. One could hold the opinion that some of these pieces rise only slightly above suitability for the salon, but what salon music this is! And many of the pieces here are important in spite of their brevity and lightness. For instance, the Third Barcarolle, Op. 42, or the Third Nocturne, Op. 33, No. 3, the latter being one of the most Chopinesque of Fauré's Nocturnes and the equal of many of Chopin's.



The great Barcarolle No. 9, Op. 101, gives us a taste of Fauré's stripped-down later style. Johannesen plays it with the proper austerity but also manages to convey allure as well. The following opus number, the ephemeral Fifth Impromptu, Op. 102, is, like the final movement of Chopin's Second Sonata, 'wind blowing over a graveyard.' This is astonishing music, and is played brilliantly by Johannesen.



I don't know of any other collection of this corner of Fauré's piano music that doesn't come in a multi-disk set. Have no fear about the forty year old sonics. The sound of the piano is lifelike, the piano itself has been well-regulated--it sounds almost like an Érard but as far as I know Johannesen always recorded on a Steinway. Although labeled 'Volume 1' I am not aware that Johannesen continued with a series of Fauré music; if not, it's a pity.



TT=75 mins



Recommended.



Scott Morrison"