Fauré: Nocturnes & Barcarolles

Fauré: Nocturnes & Barcarolles

The refined subtleties of French composer Gabriel Fauré’s solo piano music have long been cherished by his admirers. This music may seep into your consciousness gradually, but its harmonic richness and textural intricacy are instantly rewarding. Marc-André Hamelin’s performances of the complete Nocturnes and Barcarolles stand out for their intensity of expression, most notably in the darkness of the final Nocturnes. Throughout, Hamelin is alive to the music’s richness and variety—listen to how the Barcarolles’ intertwining textures betray Fauré’s training as an organist. The Nocturnes, meanwhile, chart a winding journey from songlike Romanticism to the bleak austerity of the final, 13th Nocturne, composed three years before the composer’s death in 1924. As a charming coda, Hamelin is joined by his wife, the pianist and broadcaster Cathy Fuller, for Fauré’s piano duet Dolly Suite, played with magical innocence and color.

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