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PHILIPPE CASSARD 25
The
Fantaisie
op.111, though much less well known, in my view belongs among the
major works of Fauré’s late period.
It was suggested by his publisher, Jacques Durand, to whom the composer wrote
in September 1918 on the subject of the concertanteworks of the French repertoire:
‘Thank you for suggesting this Fantasy to me. It is true that there are not too many
pieces of this kind, and, as you remarked to me, apart from the concertos of Saint-
Saëns, modern music for piano and orchestra is quite rare. The work is composed
of a first movement, Allegromoltomoderato, interrupted by anAllegro vivace, and
ends with a return to the first movement.’
The process of composition, during the summer of 1918, was straightforward: ‘It
seems to me that I am working faster and more easily as I get older’, Fauré wrote
to his wife. ‘I must say that the news of the war has done me as much good as I
imagine it has you.’
The
Fantaisie
, in its version for two pianos, was published by Durand; now suffering
from increasingly serious hearing difficulties, Fauré gave the task of orchestrating
it to the composer Marcel Samuel-Rousseau. The
Fantaisie
is dedicated to Alfred
Cortot, who gave its first Paris performance in 1919 but seems scarcely to have
played it thereafter.