Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924)
The Complete Works
Contents & performers listed after review
No texts or translations
Erato 5054 197947 490 [26 CDs: 45 hours]

In 2018 Erato released a 12-CD box containing Fauré’s piano, chamber, orchestral and choral works, including the Requiem. At its core was French EMI’s 1970s-1980s dream-team of Jean-Philippe Collard, Augustin Dumay, Frédéric Lodéon, the Perrenin Quartet, Bruno Rigutto, and the Toulouse Orchestra under Michel Plasson. Now, just in time for the centenary of the composer’s death, Erato has boxed 26 CDs to form ‘The Complete Works’ though it admits that it’s not quite the complete works, as there are certain omissions of pieces that either Fauré didn’t include in his catalogue – the Violin Concerto most prominently but also Le Voile du Bonheur – or early pieces, competition works and certain transcriptions. The most serious omissions from the earlier Erato set were stage works and songs, something that has been handsomely rectified here, along with the five discs of historical recordings.

I have not listened to everything – the set lasts some 45 hours – as many of the recordings are very familiar but I’ve certainly listened to much more than I was expecting. That’s because some of the inclusions are sufficiently off-the-beaten- track to warrant lending an ear. I’m going to give a swift overview. The Piano Works occupy discs one to five. This time around Erato has decided to expand its artist roster and divide the recordings between Collard, Éric Heidsieck and Jean Hubeau. Broadly, Collard gets the Impromptus, Barcarolles and Thème and Variations, Heidsieck gets the Nocturnes and Hubeau the Valses-caprices and Préludes. I reviewed Hubeau’s 4-CD Fauré set 17 years ago and, for what it’s worth, considered his Préludes significantly inferior to Collard’s. You can find Heidsieck’s performances on Erato’s excellent 27-CD box devoted to him. You’ll also find curiosities such as the very early Piano Sonata, a genuinely ‘classical’ work, and Mazurke in B-flat major, both recorded by Nicolas Stavy in 2018 and licenced from BIS. An addition can be found in the two evocative works for harp, the Impromptu in D-flat major and Une châtelaine en sa tour beautifully played by Marielle Nordmann in 1981 recordings. Disc 5 includes the works for piano four-hands split between Collard and Rigutto whose own excellent recording on the earlier box of Dolly cedes to the one here, recorded splendidly back in 1963 by Geneviève Joy and Jacqueline Robin-Bonneau.

The last item on CD 5 is the first of the Chamber Music, the First Violin Sonata in the famous Ferras-Barbizet traversal of September 1964. The Chamber music then extends to CD 9 and to ensure plurality of choice this box isn’t afraid to delve back further than the Dumay-Collard-Parrenin recordings, though jettisoning them all would have been, in my view, a serious selection mistake. Thus, the Piano Quartet No 1 is played rather uneasily by Samson François and the Quatuor Bernède whilst No 2 is played by Collard and the Quatuor Parrenin. Similarly, the Piano Quintet No 1 is heard in the Jean Hubeau-Quatuor Via Nova traversal of 1970 whilst No 2 is again with Collard and the Parrenin in their much-admired 1978 recording. A rather rarer find is the Piano Trio, Op 120 in the 1969 recording made by Raymond Gallois-Montbrun, André Navarra and Hubeau which replaces the Dumay-Lodéon-Collard in the previous box. Another newcomer is the Quatuor Ébène who play the String Quartet, Op 121 in their 2008 recording which replaces the Parrenin’s 1975 recording. The Violin Sonata No 2 could have used Ferras again but the compilers have sensibly selected Dumay and Collard, and they also favour the ‘international’ pairing of Tortelier and Hubeau over Lodéon and Collard in the two Cello Sonatas. The cellist, of course, has his own Erato 21-CD box. Among the smaller pieces in these chamber volumes, you’ll find some illustrious names; Menuhin, Rampal and the Capuçon brothers, among them.

The Concertante and Orchestral Works include the Ballade in F-sharp major and the Fantaisie in G major, both in the hands of Collard, with Plasson directing the Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse. An addition to this new volume is the Fantaisie in E minor for flute, played by Emmanuel Pahud, in Louis Aubert’s orchestration – presumably why it was omitted before. Shylock heads the Orchestral works in a familiar Plasson recording, several times reissued. However, Dolly is new, played in Henri Rabaud’s orchestration, by the Orchestre national de la Radiodiffusion Française under Francophile extraordinaire (and Georges Prêtre’s hero) Thomas Beecham. CD 11 is also largely all-Plasson and very familiar with its incidental music to Pelléas et Mélisande and Masques et Bergamasques. However, there are three additions, the most notable one of which is Chant funéraire, a 12-minute piece marking the centenary of the death of Napoleon and heard in Guillaume Balay’s orchestration.

For the Songs Erato could have just reissued in its entirety the Ameling-Souzay-Baldwin box but they have, naturally, chosen more widely and dug further back. Ameling sings La Chanson d’Éve but baritone Camille Maurane and Lily Bienvenu take an important place in the set, performing the cycles Cinq mélodies ‘de Venise’, Mirages and Le Jardin clos as well as L’Horizon chimérique infinely expressive recordings from 1957 in mono. CD 14 houses two different versions of La Bonne Chanson, the earlier from Fischer-Dieskau and Gerald Moore in 1958, stylistically aberrant, and the later from Ian Bostridge and Julius Drake and the Belcea Quartet with double bassist Leon Bosch – this is the arrangement with string quintet, recorded in 2004. A battalion of great singers and accompanists distinguish themselves in these discs to a greater or lesser extent, and these include a handful of songs sung by Victoria de los Ángeles, Janet Baker, Régine Crespin, Barbara Hendricks, Frederica von Stade, Nicolai Gedda and others too numerous to mention.

There are three discs of Religious and Choral Works, as opposed to the previous box’s one disc. There are three recordings of the Cantique de Jean Racine in its various iterations, and smaller religious works including the rarely heard and very affecting Super flumina Babylonis in a live performance conducted by Paavo Järvi, not the first person you’d think of as a Fauréan, in 2011. The Requiem in this first of the three discs is conducted by David Hill with soloists Nancy Argenta and Simon Keenlyside and the Bournemouth Sinfonietta with Winchester Cathedral Choir. They play the John Rutter edition. CD 17 contains the 1899-1900 version in a really sleepy-time-down-south performance from Michel Corboz. It’s also in a recent Corboz box and it’s a real pity Louis Frémaux’s recording wasn’t substituted. There is, however, another rarity in this volume, the Messe de l’Association des pêcheurs de Villerville for three voices, women’s chorus, harmonium and orchestra, a collaboration with André Messager, played with assurance by La Chapelle Royale under Philippe Herreweghe. There are two different versions of the Pavane, with the more familiar version played by Barenboim, and numerous Motets, music from Caligula and the prologue La Passion. The Messe basse, more familiar, is played by the Ensemble vocal Audite Nova de Paris under Jean Sourisse in a 1982 recording.

Pénélope occupies two CDs in the Lyric Works section. This is the well-known recording in which Jessye Norman sings the title role, with Charles Dutoit directing with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo. Neither it nor the lyric tragedy Prométhée were in the previous box. The latter work is via INA Radio France and recorded complete, as far as I can tell, in 1961 mono. Louis de Froment directs exceptionally well and the cast includes Berthe Monmart, Jeanine Collard, Janine Micheau, Émile Belcourt, André Belcourt, André Vessières and Jean Mollien. The only other version I have is the world premiere LP conducted by the unlikely figure of Roger ‘The Dodger’ Norrington.

The riches enshrined in the Historic Recordings legacy on 78, piano rolls and early LPs are considerable. Thus, you can hear the composer on two Welte Mignon piano rolls, though they don’t tell us much that can be substantiated about his approach to the Prélude No 3 or the Barcarolle No 1. Marguerite Long plays a selection of pieces from her 1930s sessions, as well as the Ballade with Gaubert in 1930 and Samson François adds a trio of pieces from 1955. Lily Laskine plays the Impromptu in D-flat major for harp seductively in a 1934 recording. The major items in CD 23 are Thibaud and Cortot playing the Violin Sonata No 1 in 1927, the Krettly Quartet playing the Quartet in E minor in 1928 and in a recording I hadn’t heard before, Navarra and Annie d’Arco playing the Cello Sonata No 2 in Paris in 1949. CD 24 has three pieces: the Piano Quartet No 1 with Long and the Trio Pasquier, recorded in 1956, the Piano Quartet No 2 in the famous wartime recording with Long, Thibaud, Vieux and Fournier, and music from Shylock directed by Piero Coppola in 1932.

Charles Panzéra and Magdeleine Panzéra-Baillot recorded La Bonne Chanson and L’Horizon chimérique in 1936 and these remain bedrock recommendations in the historic discography. It’s particularly exciting to hear the single example of Jane Bathori singing, self-accompanied, on Clair de lune in 1929 and Ninon Vallin sings six mélodies. If this isn’t enough there is also Croiza, Marcoux, Bernac and Poulenc, Thill, and Maggie Teyte. The final disc is devoted to two more Requiem recordings. The first is Ernest Bourmauck’s of 1931 and the second the much more familiar Nadia Boulanger recording of 1948. I thought I’d never heard the Bourmauck but in fact I have the Helios LP transferred by Keith Hardwick back in 1982. Like a lot of old choral recordings that one thinks look stylistically interesting a playing ruins the delusion. This is a point-making dawdle but at least he sounds devotional.

That’s the end of the ‘swift’ overview that I promised. I’ve not been able to itemise every singer and instrumentalist in the contents list below. It’s beyond me. However, I’ve included the major artists, orchestras and conductors. The recordings are heard in their latest restorations, whether it’s Heideseck’s Nocturnes in their 2011 remasterings or the String Quartet and the Trio in 2008 or the Hubeau Préludes in 1990 restorations. Nothing in the first 21 CDs has been newly remastered for this box but in a large number of cases you probably won’t be able to extract better sound in any case. The five CDs of historical recordings, however, have all been remastered afresh by Art & Son and they’ve done, I’m sorry to say, a generally bad job. The nadir is their restoration of Long’s 1930s recordings which are terrible – you have to stick to the APRs – as is the turntable motor rumble noise in the Krettly Quartet’s 1928 recording of the Quartet in E minor. Elsewhere there are far too many examples of excessive noise suppression sucking the life out of important recordings.

There is a 68-page booklet in French, English and German, which includes a six-page track listing and some splendidly reproduced photographs. François Laurent’s essay, in each language, is actually ten pages long. Finally, these are not the voguish ‘Original Jacket’ releases, which are designed to squeeze the purchaser’s wallet. This set is sensibly filled, and the wallets are beautifully designed, using Alphonse Mucha’s evocative art works. If one excludes the historical element, for which in many cases you will need alternative transfers if you’re serious about historic recordings, this is a thoughtfully compiled set that balances the lasting virtues of French EMI’s domestic catalogue with other selections to present a rich variety of recordings at an exceptionally tempting price.

Jonathan Woolf

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Contents

CDs 1-5: Piano Works:
Ballade · Barcarolles · Impromptus · Mazurka · Nocturnes · Piano Sonata · Pièce en forme de mazurka · Pièces brèves · Préludes · Romances sans paroles · Thème & Variations · Valses-caprices · Intermède symphonique · Souvenir de Bayreuth · Allegro symphonique · Dolly

CD 4: Piano Works. Harp Solo
Valses-Caprices · Preludes· Impromptu · Une châtelaine en sa tour

CDs 5-9: Chamber Music
Violin Sonatas · Cello Sonatas · Piano Trio · String Quartet · Piano Quartets · Piano Quintets · Romances · Berceuse · Élégie · Papillon · Andante in B-flat major · Morceaux de lecture à vue · Sicilienne · Fantaisie · Sérénade

CD 10: Concertante Music
Berceuse · Ballade · Élégie · Fantaisies

CDs 10-11: Orchestral Works
Shylock · Dolly · Pelléas et Mélisande · Masques et Bergamasques · Chant funéraire · Pénélope

CDs 12-15: Songs (Mélodies)

CDs 16-18: Religious and Choral Works
Super flumina Babylonis · Cantique de Jean Racine · Ave Maria · Tu es Petrus · Les Djinns · Le Ruisseau · Motets · Requiem · Messe de l’Association des pêcheurs de Villerville · La Naissance de Vénus · Pavane · Caligula · Il est né le divin enfant · Noël d’enfants · Ecce fidelis servus · La Passion · Tantum ergo · Sancta Mater · Ave Maria · Messe basse

CD 19-21: Lyric Works
Prométhée · Penelope

CDs 22-26: Historic Recordings from 1913-1957

Artists
Elly Ameling (soprano)
Victoria de los Ángeles (soprano)
Régine Crespin (soprano)
Natalie Dessay (soprano)
Sabine Devieilhe (soprano)
Veronique Gens (soprano)
Barbara Hendricks (soprano)
Jane Laval (soprano)
Janine Micheau (soprano)
Berthe Monmart (soprano)
Jessye Norman (soprano)
Maggie Teyte (soprano)
Ninon Vallin (soprano)
Janet Baker (mezzo-soprano)
Jane Bathori (mezzo-soprano)
Claire Croiza (mezzo-soprano)
Frederica von Stade (mezzo-soprano)
Philippe Jaroussky (counter-tenor)
Ian Bostridge (tenor)
Nicolai Gedda (tenor)
Georges Thill (tenor)
Alain Vanzo (tenor)
Cyrille Dubois (tenor)
John Mark Ainley (tenor)
Thomas Allen (baritone)
Pierre Bernac (baritone)
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (baritone)
Camille Maurane (baritone)
Charles Panzera (baritone)
Gerard Souzay (baritone)
John Chest (baritone)
Dalton Baldwin (piano)
Lily Bienvenu (piano)
Pierre Barbizet (piano)
Jean-Philippe Collard (piano)
Alfred Cortot (piano)
Samson François (piano)
Eric Heidsieck (piano)
Jean Hubeau (piano)
Genevieve Joy (piano)
Marguerite Long (piano)
Bruno Rigutto (piano)
Jeremy Menuhin (piano)
Jérôme Ducros (piano)
Michel Dalberto (piano)
Vivian Hornik Weilerstein (piano)
Julius Drake (piano)
Tristan Raës (piano)
Philippe Cassard (piano)
Pierre Maillard-Verger (piano)
John Wustman (piano)
Roger Vignoles (piano)
Gerlad Moore (piano)
Martin Martineau (piano)
Gonzalo Soriano (piano)
Aldo Ciccolini (piano)
Augustin Dumay (violin)
Christian Ferras (violin)
Yehudi Menuhin (violin)
Jacques Thibaud (violin)
Renaud Capuçon (violin)
Raymond Gallois-Montbrun (violin)
Gautier Capuçon (cello)
Pierre Fournier (cello)
Frederic Lodeon (cello)
André Navarra (cello)
Jacqueline du Pre (cello)
Paul Tortelier (cello)
Raphaël Merlin (cello)
Alisa Weilerstein (cello)
Michel Debost (flute)
Emmanuel Pahud (flute)
Jean-Pierre Rampal (flute)
Patricia Nagle (flute)
Linda Chesis (flute)
Lucienne Renaudin Vary (trumpet)
Marielle Nordmann (harp)
Lily Laskine (harp)
Marie-Claire Alain (organ)
Quatuor Bernède
Quatuor Ébène
Quatuor Krettly
Quatuor Parrenin
Quatuor Via Nova
Trio Pasquier
Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo
Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse
Orchestre de Chambre de Paris
Choeur et Orchestre de Paris
Orchestre national de la Radiodiffusion Française
Musique des Gardiens de la Paix
Orchestre National de Lille
La Chapelle du Quebec
Ensemble vocal Alix Bourbon
Ensemble Vocal Audite Nova de Paris
Ensemble vocal de Lausanne
Groupe Vocal de France
Winchester Cathedral Choir

Conductors
Thomas Beecham
Nadia Boulanger
Ernest Bourmauck
Piero Coppola
Michel Corboz
Charles Dutoit
Louis de Froment
David Hill
Paavo Jarvi
Michel Plasson
Bernard Tetu
Manuel Rosenthal
François Leleux
Désirée Dondeyne
Roberto Rizzi Brgnoli