LDV91

Composed over a large part of his creative life, suffused with charm, sombre grandeur or stark austerity, Fauré’s Thirteen Barcarolles testify to the refinement of his style and to the evolution of his language. The barcarolle, the traditional song of the Venetian gondoliers with its characteristic swaying rhythm, achieved prestige status on the piano with Chopin’s masterpiece op.60. If the Thirteen Barcarolles that Gabriel Fauré wrote between 1881 and 1921 follow in its wake, it is above all for their harmonic refinement, their tone and the variety of their atmospheres, which are unique to the French composer. The charm of the early pieces, the polyphonic density, the sensuality, sometimes the darkness of the mature works, the deceptively simple, sometimes disconcerting plainness of the late barcarolles, present a striking contrast with each other. A respected interpreter of Fauré, Jean-Philippe Collard has over the years recorded all of his piano works, not to mention his complete chamber music and a disc of songs with Frederica von Stade – a part of the composer’s output that he regrets not having explored more ‘for all the insight it gives us into Fauré’s music, the conjunction of words and music, and the phenomenon of phrasing with the breath that singers are obliged to respect and that some pianists neglect’.