Search - Gabriel Faure, Domus Ensemble, Susan Tomes :: Gabriel Faure: Piano Quartets No.1 & 2

HEART AND SOUL

DAVID BRYSON | Glossop Derbyshire England | 02/01/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This pair of performances won a Gramophone award a few years back. I also feel considerable enthusiasm for it, whether for the same reasons as the Gramophone judges I now can't remember.Despite that award, this disc is attracting surprisingly little comment nowadays. The quartets seem absolutely marvellous music to me, but one of the practical barriers to a wider audience for them is probably that Faure's music is a frustrating combination of technically difficult and not at all showy. He was one of the most subtle and original harmonists there has ever been (the second quartet being very notable in this respect), and certainly as far as the piano writing is concerned he keeps taking one's fingers where they are not expecting to go. These accounts are outstanding for their naturalness and spontaneity. They probably make the music sound a lot easier than it actually is, and that is no doubt the nub of the matter because any sense of effort or struggle would kill music like this. It is all very `professional' in its way, but by today's standards not especially refined. The pianist in particular, while very accurate, is - what am I trying to say? - no Michelangeli. I have only one life, and this record has enhanced it. I can imagine smoother, but whether that would be better in any sense I could recognise I simply do not know, and I simply do not care. A certain amount of dutiful comment sometimes attends the first quartet relating it to the composer's failed engagement. All this, in my personal view, is best ignored. Faure's emotions were doubtless as strong as Wagner's for all I know. The real point in that comparison is that they represent, musically, opposite poles. Wagner thought, not unreasonably, that he was riding the tide of history in his commitment to music that was not `absolute' in the sense that Bach's music was that, but which bound itself to an underlying poetic or dramatic idea. He had every reason to believe this - other than Chopin no composer that I can think of since Bach's time was an undiluted `absolute' musician. Then there was, abruptly, Brahms. Anything but unemotional, anything but indifferent to women, Brahms simply revived a tradition that had not died and only slept. Whatever their personal emotions, Brahms and Faure express music purely, as Bach had done - they do not use music to express something else. Listen to this wonderful music just for itself."

Award-Winning Performances

Alan Lekan | Boulder, CO | 02/13/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Just a short addition to the other fine reviews here: This recording by the UK ensemble Domus - along with the matching one of the Piano Quintets - was lavishly decorated by the British music press with many awards. Penguin gave both their coveted "Rosette" rating along with a "Recommended Recording" citing while Gramophone richly rewarded both CD's with the top "Gramophone Award" for chamber music that year. When these two major reviewers agree like that, one can be assured something special is there which is the case with this CD. (but the sound quality is hardly best-in-class).



Faure is something of a neglected French Romantic composer hiding in the shadows of Debussy, Ravel and others. Yet, his music is some of the most equisite, beautiful and rewarding - from the Violin Sonatas (Tomes/Osostowicz) to the Piano Trio (Floristan Trio w/Tomes) to the Piano Quartets here. All are worth hearing and exploring if you like chamber or French Romantic music."

Treat yourself. From G. A. Monroe,

marcel195 | 10/16/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Are you kidding? If music were fine wine, this disc would be the {insert name of your favorite $1,000 bottle here}. Really, this is some of the most civilized music ever performed. The quartets are masterpieces on several levels, and the performers are nimble, sensitive virtuosi and in my opinion the very best on record in this genre. As with Domus' other contributions (see especially their Dvorak on Hyperion and their Brahms on Virgin Classics), if you get to know this disc the pieces will haunt you, in a happy way, from year to year. A desert-island disc if ever there was one, and a cornerstone of any chamber music collection. (I seem to recall this disc won the Grammophone and probably some other awards in 1986 or '87.) Domus, please re-unite and do a concert tour!"