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Track(s) taken from CDA67872

Élégie, Op 24

composer
1880; first performed at Saint-Saëns' home on 21 June 1880; published by Hamelle in 1883

Alban Gerhardt (cello), Cecile Licad (piano)
Recording details: October 2010
Concert Hall, Wyastone Estate, Monmouth, United Kingdom
Produced by Rachel Smith
Engineered by Simon Eadon
Release date: January 2012
Total duration: 6 minutes 39 seconds

Cover artwork: Landscape at Cagnes. Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919)
Private Collection / Photo © Lefevre Fine Art Ltd, London / Bridgeman Images
 

Other recordings available for download

Steven Isserlis (cello), Pascal Devoyon (piano)

Reviews

‘Gerhardt and Licad sound as free as air, intellectually confident, full of verve, with niceties of balance and intensities never an issue; a convincing frame of colour, movement and sound in place for every movement, every piece’ (Gramophone)

‘Visionary performers … one has a powerful sense of Alban Gerhardt's compelling grasp of architecture’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘Gerhardt and Licad make a particularly fine duo here, working emotionally in unison, sensing the music's contours with like mind, breathing as one’ (The Daily Telegraph)

‘Like the works themselves, Gerhardt's playing and that of the pianist Cecile Licad is full of subtleties, the half-tones and inflections that make the chamber music of Fauré's final decade so elusive and fragile’ (The Guardian)

‘An arrestingly beautiful survey … this repertoire has been explored frequently and by some of the best, but seldom more persuasively than here … from every standpoint, Gerhardt's accounts of the sonatas seem exceptional, with their assured technical mastery and uncanny depth of insight … magnificent cello playing from Gerhardt, empathetically supportive accompaniments from Licad and a wonderfully natural and atmospheric recording to boot … recommended’ (International Record Review)

‘Both cello sonatas are rolled out effortlessly and with an abundance of colour … other short cello works, the delicious Élégie included, pad out this sizeable, and very satisfying, offering … a super recording’ (The Scotsman)

‘Alban Gerhardt has arrived at the ideal marriage of Fauré's refinement, essential reticence and the passion that lies just beneath the surface of the two cello sonatas’ (Yorkshire Post)
The Élégie, written in 1880 and premiered in Saint-Saëns’s house on 21 June, was envisaged as the slow movement of a sonata. Why it should then have waited three years for publication is unknown—perhaps it was just that it took Fauré that long to realize the sonata wouldn’t work. At any rate the Élégie was an immediate success, not surprisingly since it embraces a wide area of emotion—pathos, delicacy, virtuosity, heroics, and a final page of beautifully judged détente.

from notes by Roger Nichols © 2012

L’Élégie que Fauré a écrite en 1880, créée chez Saint-Saëns le 21 juin, a peut-être été conçue à l’origine comme le mouvement lent d’une sonate. On ignore pour quelle raison elle a dû attendre trois ans avant d’être publiée—c’était peut-être le temps nécessaire à Fauré pour comprendre que la sonate ne fonctionnerait pas. En tout cas, l’Élégie fut un succès immédiat, ce qui n’a rien d’étonnant puisqu’elle embrasse une vaste gamme d’émotions—pathos, délicatesse, virtuosité, mélodrame et une dernière page tout en «détente» merveilleusement conçue.

extrait des notes rédigées par Roger Nichols © 2012
Français: Marie-Stella Pâris

Élégie, die Fauré 1880 komponierte und die am 21. Juni im Hause Saint-Saëns’ uraufgeführt wurde, war ursprünglich als langsamer Satz einer Sonate geplant. Weshalb es dann drei Jahre dauerte, bis das Werk veröffentlicht wurde, ist nicht bekannt—vielleicht brauchte Fauré einige Zeit um zu realisieren, dass es sich als Sonate nicht eignen würde. Die Élégie war jedenfalls ein sofortiger Erfolg, was vielleicht angesichts der großen Emotionsspanne—Pathos, Zartheit, Virtuosität, Heldenmut sowie ein Schluss von formvollendeter détente—nicht weiter überraschend ist.

aus dem Begleittext von Roger Nichols © 2012
Deutsch: Viola Scheffel

Other albums featuring this work

Fauré: Cello Sonata No 2 & other works
CDA66235Deleted
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