Rolf Looser & Urs Vœgelin - Fauré: Cello Sonata No. 1, Op. 109 - Sérénade, Op. 98 - Cello Sonata No. 2, Op. 117 - Romance, Op. 69 (2024) [Hi-Res]

The two Sonatas for Cello and Piano, opus 109 and 117, written between 1917 and 1921 in St. Raphael and Nice, reflect and form the peculiarity and diversity characteristic of the style marking the last period of a long artistic life. A life in which things had time to mature without being hassled by impatience or ambition. This is equally true for Fauré’s entire musical creation: the salutary distance he could maintain towards himself and his work—a virtue every true artist should possess. His biography reveals the same phenomenon, once again proving the rare coherence between his life and his art.

Beyond appreciating the purely musical values of these unique late creations, they deserve further consideration and reflection, as surprisingly little attention has been given to them so far.

In his “Dernière manière”, Gabriel Fauré creates a paradoxical synthesis in his musical writing, uniting a strangely severe sobriety and simplicity with an emotionality that, at times, reaches ecstasy. This “Dernière manière” is not only the concluding creation of his own musical career but also brings to a close the era of Western musical tradition embedded in tonality and modality. Fauré, therefore, can be seen as having carried a double mission, increasing his significance. It might very well have been Fauré who was chosen to play the last grand games on the checkerboard of modal tonality. Towards the end of his life, this brought him to step near the limits of this domain. He did so with intuition and the superior sensitivity of one whose vitality expressed innumerable nuances, with the confidence of a sleepwalker, as much tact as boldness, often transgressing these limits as if unknowingly—or did these limits simply not exist for him? Through this path of evolution, he became an innovator, where others in his time—the revolutionaries—felt they had to leap over or break down these barriers.

Let us take a closer look at some of the traits of his musical writing, particularly characteristic of the last period of his creation, which opens with his song cycle Chanson d’Eve (op. 95, 1906) and his only opera, Pénélope (1907-1912), written while already suffering from severe hearing loss.