What a sea change in music through that lifetime: Fauré was 4 when Chopin died and 63 when Arnold Schoenberg composed his atonal String Quartet No. 2 in 1908.
Fauré completed the first of the quintets, Op. 89, in 1906, after 20 years of false starts. It had a lukewarm reception (Fauré himself played the piano part, with the legendary Eugène Ysaÿe and his quartet) and was forgotten after it was published in the United States.
The second work, Op. 115, is the product of a frail, nearly deaf 76-year-old yet is a far more robust piece of music. It had its premiere in the spring of 1921.
Neither piece is adventurous, yet there’s really nothing else like them.
The Op. 89 Quintet meanders through three movements that don’t always have a lot of momentum but are jewels of fine contrapuntal writing for all the instruments.
The Op. 115 Quintet is more impassioned, rarely attached to a fixed key, yet beautifully developed over four movements. This is the sort of colourful, atmospheric, emotionally charged music that speaks to late Romanticism as well as Impressionism.
The Ebènes and Le Sage are nothing short of magnificent in their interpretations — all steel fists and bows in velvet gloves, ideally balanced, attuned to each other as if they are one organism.
This album is a real treat, the third in a planned full survey of the chamber music of Gabriel Fauré by the Alpha label (some details here).
For a taste of the Op. 89 quintet, here are three magical minutes of the Ebènes with pianist Michael Dalberto:
John Terauds