Composer: Gabriel Urbain Fauré
Performer: Domus
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Hyperion
Catalogue: CDA66166
Release: 1986
Size: 230 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Piano Quartet No. 1 in C minor Op. 15
01. I. Allegro molto moderato
02. II. Scherzo: Allegro vivo
03. III. Adagio
04. IV. Allegro molto
Piano Quartet No. 2 in G minor, Op. 45
05. I. Allegro molto moderato
06. II. Allegro molto
07. III. Adagio non troppo
08. IV. Allegro molto
The First Piano Quartet reveals Fauré’s debt to an earlier generation of composers, particularly Mendelssohn.
Yet already it has the refined sensuality, the elegance and the craftsmanship which were always to be hallmarks of his style and it’s a thoroughly assured, highly enjoyable work which could come from no other composer’s pen.
The Second Quartet is a more complex, darker work, but much less ready to yield its secrets. The comparatively agitated, quicksilver Scherzo impresses at once, however, and the complete work possesses considerable poetry and stature. Occasionally one might wish that Domus had a slightly more aristocratic, commanding approach to these scores, but the overall achievement is impressive, for their playing is both idiomatic and technically impeccable. The recording is faithful and well balanced.