Search - Gabriel Faure, Richard Lester [cello], Susan Tomes :: Fauré: Piano Quintets

About as beautiful as music can get

Tom | Toronto,, Ontario, Canada | 12/29/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Faure is a master of creating cool, delicate, elegant melodies that progress in complex, unexpected, and, often, achingly lovely, ways. "Ravishing" might be nearly the right adjective for these quintets, but that adjective calls a bit too much attention to itself, and Faure's music never does that. These piano quintets, like virtually all of Faure's chamber works, are nothing if not subtle, and, though certainly "French", they don't sound like anything else, before or since. This interpretation by Domus/Marwood is all that any admirer of this music could hope for. The performers here do a lot more than get the notes right--they seem sensitive to the atmosphere these works can create when played with insight and concentration. The recording itself has to be perfect to capture all the necessary nuances of the music and intricacies of the performance, and it is. The end result is about as beautiful as music can be. If you admire Faure's Requiem, but are not familiar with his chamber works, well, you have a lot of catching up to do. This CD is a great place to start."

A glowing account brimming with unexpected glories

Tom | 02/04/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"To this day, Gabriel Faure has remained rather an obscure and neglected figure in the ranks of chamber music composers, or at least, it seems that outside France his appeal has been limited to 'connoisseurs only'. It might be overtly optimistic to expect that Faure's status would ever rise to the level of such household names as Beethoven or Brahms (or even Debussy, for that matter); however, what with music as compelling and beautiful as these two Quintets, one should wish his reputation to grow.This Hyperion issue of Faure's two Piano Quintets, where Domus is joined by Anthony Marwood, presents both the composer and the ensemble at their very best. Even more poignantly than on their excellent account of the Piano Quartets, Domus manage to convey the bitter-sweet, elusive fragrance of the fleeting moment so often expressed by Faure.Even at their most vivacious and rapturous, both of these Piano Quintets are pervaded by an introspective, melancholy strain that has an unnerving tendency to linger in the listener's memory. These works are melodious but not melodramatic, gently lyrical yet not overtly 'romantic' - and definitely not pessimistic. Despite the aforementioned autumnal undertones, there are moments of almost whimsical passion and mercurial joie-de-vivre here. What more need I say? A little perseverance is needed, perhaps, as Faure's style of writing (especially his 'liquid' piano lines) may at first seem a bit hard to grasp, despite of the fact that these Quintets were not in any explicit way 'modern' or revolutionary at the time when they were composed. However, repeated listening will reveal unexpected glories and nuances below the seemingly traditional fin-de-siecle surface, and as always, perseverance brings the richest rewards.On the whole, this is a perfect record to add to your Faure collection - even if you have not yet started one, you probably will after hearing these unjustly neglected jewels."

The essential Faure

Avid Reader | Franklin, Tn | 01/01/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Gabriel Faure's compositions always seem mannered, controlled, remarkably crafted, not a note out of place. These works are, in the words of a previous reviewer, ravishing. And it is not just the music per se, it is the mood, the style, the soul of the man that seems to shine forth. Saying all that, these are works that improve on second and third listening. The effect is not immediate, say as in Schumann or Brahms. They are quintessentially "French", slightly modernistic, but they glisten and shine like a jewel. The interplay between the piano and the others is like a bubbling fountain, sometimes in sync, sometimes seeming to go in different directions. The interpretation is quite sensitive to the artist and for Faure, this is quite difficult considering its reserved intimacy."