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Product Description
CD Description
Quintessentially Gallic in its amalgam of classical rigour, inventive harmonic language and subtle, but arresting sensuality, Fauré's chamber music is here performed by nine leading French-born musicians violinist Renaud Capuçon, violist Gérard Caussé, cellists Gautier Capuçon and Raphaël Merlin, pianist Michel D'Alberto, string quartet Quatuor Ebène and an honorary Frenchman, US-born, Paris-trained pianist Nicholas Angelich. The four CDs comprise works for two, three, four and five instruments and span the composer s career from early works, influenced by his teacher Saint-Saëns, to the more rarefied compositions of his later years.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
As others have mentioned: the technical quality of this recording is really a shame!
The only piece of music that sounds acceptable is the string quartet (already released) the others are extraordinary bad.
Especially in the piano quartets and quintets the piano sounds like recorded separately in another room (may be an empty bathroom?) far behind the strings, way to low and with a different resonance as the strings who sound flat and too lifeless.
The musicians play with energy and delicacy but somewhere between the microphones and the ears of the recording engineer something strange and unpleasant must have happened (didn't the musicians protest against the results?) which killed my willingness to listen twice to the recordings and to care much about the potential performance of the musicians and what might be their musical contribution to Fauré fans (such as I am).
Of course one accepts the modest sound quality of historic recordings and can nevertheless appreciate artistic performance and interpretation and listen with fun but for newborn recordings such a pathetic sound quality (even if the price is low) is inacceptable.
What a disappointment! I had some expectations as the performances of the Capuçons etc. (even if I do not always share their musical opinions) are always refreshing.
The only piece of music that sounds acceptable is the string quartet (already released) the others are extraordinary bad.
Especially in the piano quartets and quintets the piano sounds like recorded separately in another room (may be an empty bathroom?) far behind the strings, way to low and with a different resonance as the strings who sound flat and too lifeless.
The musicians play with energy and delicacy but somewhere between the microphones and the ears of the recording engineer something strange and unpleasant must have happened (didn't the musicians protest against the results?) which killed my willingness to listen twice to the recordings and to care much about the potential performance of the musicians and what might be their musical contribution to Fauré fans (such as I am).
Of course one accepts the modest sound quality of historic recordings and can nevertheless appreciate artistic performance and interpretation and listen with fun but for newborn recordings such a pathetic sound quality (even if the price is low) is inacceptable.
What a disappointment! I had some expectations as the performances of the Capuçons etc. (even if I do not always share their musical opinions) are always refreshing.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
5 reviews
20 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Oh woe is me...
25 Oct 2011
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
When I first noticed this brand new set of recordings by one of the most distinguished assemblages of Francophile musicians on the current scene, I was overjoyed, though also slightly puzzled as I noted a box set in which only one recording had ever been previously released as a single disc. The Quatuor Ebene performance of Faure's only string quartet has been justly praised and so I wondered why the other performances had not yet made their way onto CD. Unfortunately, the cynical side of me fears that they have been relegated to bargain-price box-set status due to a fatal flaw which undermines many of the performances - the recording. With the exception of the Quatuor Ebene release, all the other performances were recorded in the Fondation Singer-Polignac in Paris at roughly the same time, and are characteristic of recordings in which the engineer records the ensemble at a too-great distance to achieve ambience and a big ensemble and then seeks to correct for the attendant loss of warmth and fullness by adding artificial low and low mid frequencies via equalization. The result is a recording that sounds like it was made from the last row of a huge concert hall by an enterprising fan with a pocket recorder who then tried to salvage the results back at home with studio gimmickry. This is especially true of the piano quartets and quintets, works which are to begin with difficult to capture on recording due to the thick ensemble writing in many places and the tutti passages for strings that often sound grainy and buzzy when recorded too close. The violin sonatas fare somewhat better though these are also placed at too great a distance, almost apologetically as if the engineer feared they wouldn't sound big enough recorded on their own merits. The cello sonatas are perhaps the best sounding of the lot with Gautier Capucon's cello caught to good advantage, though at times drowning out the piano of Nicholas Angelich. Other recordings by this duo along with brother Renaud, most notably their splendid set of Schubert trios also on Virgin, led me to hope that Virgin might make a similarly full, warm and detailed recording of the Faure pieces, but alas, it was not to be. I guess having consistent recordings in this day and age of record companies trying to save a buck is too much to hope for. These concerns aside, the playing can't be faulted in any way and the excellence of the performances only serves to deepen my disappointment in the unacceptable recording.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
AUDIO: BOTTOM OF THE BATHTUB
26 Feb 2012
Format:Audio CD
I must concur with the above reviewer from Italy.
I bought this from Amazon France, long before its US release.
I listen without problem to severely restricted audio from the 1920s, scratches and all, without a problem, but in this Fauré set, the haloed resonance and lack of clarity made this unlistenable without physical distress.
I'm a fan of the Ebene, the Capuçons and company, but, alas, I recommend passing on this despite the excellent price, unless you're able to audition it and find the sound satisfactory before purchasing.
Editor, AcousticLevitation dot org
I bought this from Amazon France, long before its US release.
I listen without problem to severely restricted audio from the 1920s, scratches and all, without a problem, but in this Fauré set, the haloed resonance and lack of clarity made this unlistenable without physical distress.
I'm a fan of the Ebene, the Capuçons and company, but, alas, I recommend passing on this despite the excellent price, unless you're able to audition it and find the sound satisfactory before purchasing.
Editor, AcousticLevitation dot org
4 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Gabriel Fauré: His Music and His Influences
19 Oct 2011
Format:Audio CD
Gabriel Fauré 1845- 1924), the French composer, organist, pianist and teacher, was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th century composers. He was sent to a music college in Paris, where he was trained to be a church organist and choirmaster. Among his teachers was Camille Saint-Saëns, who became a lifelong friend. In his early years, Fauré earned a modest living as an organist and teacher, leaving him little time for composition. When he became successful, holding the important posts of organist of the Église de la Madeleine and head of the Paris Conservatoire, he still lacked time for composing, retreating to the countryside in the summer holidays to concentrate on composition. By his last years, Fauré was recognised in France as the leading French composer of his day. An unprecedented national musical tribute was held for him in Paris in 1922 headed by the President of the Republic. Fauré had many admirers in England, but his music, though known in other countries, took decades more to become widely accepted. His music has been described as linking the end of Romanticism with the modernism of the second quarter of the 20th century. When he was born, Chopin was still composing, and by the time of his death the atonal music of the Second Viennese School was being heard. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, which describes him as the most advanced composer of his generation in France, notes that his harmonic and melodic innovations affected the teaching of harmony for later generations. In contrast with the charm of his earlier music, his last works, written when increasing deafness had struck him, are elusive and withdrawn in character.
As brilliant a composer as he was, his works sound simple to most listeners. It is only when a large portion of his compositions are grouped as they are in this superb 5 disc set that the richness of his harmonic ideas and the forward looking concepts he expressed become evident in the music of the composers who followed him. In this set his music is honored by some of today's most outstanding musicians, young me n who devote themselves to music beyond simply scheduling concerts and recordings. There is a magical sense of history in this set and it may take multiple listenings to satisfy the curiosities that are present in almost every work.
On the first disc violinist Renaud Capuçon and pianists Michel Dalberto and Nicholas Angelich offer the two sonatas for violin and piano and separate these two very different sonatas with the well known pieces - Berceuse, Romance, Andante, and Morceau de Lecture. On the second disc Michel Dalberto joins cellist Gautier Capuçon for the Sonate Opus 109, then offer more favorite single pieces - Élégie, Papillon, another Romance, Sérénade, and Sicilienne. The brothers Capuçon with pianist Nicholas Angelich then perform the challenging three movement Deuxième Sonate. The same ensemble plays the Trio for Piano & Strings in D Minor before turning the program over to sophisticated Quatuor Ébène (Pierre Colombet and Gabriel Le Magadure, violins, Mathieu Herzog, viola, and Raphaël Merlin, cello) for the Quartet for Strings in E Minor.
As another 'quartet ensemble' Renaud Capuçon, Michel Dalberto, Gautier Capuçon, Gérard Caussé offer the Quartet for Piano and Strings I and II and and the final disc assembles the Quatuor Ébène with Renaud Capuçon and MIchel Dalberto for the Piano Quintets I with Nicholas Angelich assuming the piano part for number II. The entire recital ends with a memorable performance of Morceau de lecture for Two Celloswith Gautier Capuçon and guest cellist Raphaël Merlin.
And so we have the complete chamber works of Gabriel Fauré as played by French musicians (with the exception of Nicholas Angelich who is American) and it is unlikely that such an event can be matched in style, quality of recordings, and sensitivity of the men involved. The surprisingly low price is well worth it as this is a treasure of a recording that will complement every music lover's library. Grady Harp, October 11
As brilliant a composer as he was, his works sound simple to most listeners. It is only when a large portion of his compositions are grouped as they are in this superb 5 disc set that the richness of his harmonic ideas and the forward looking concepts he expressed become evident in the music of the composers who followed him. In this set his music is honored by some of today's most outstanding musicians, young me n who devote themselves to music beyond simply scheduling concerts and recordings. There is a magical sense of history in this set and it may take multiple listenings to satisfy the curiosities that are present in almost every work.
On the first disc violinist Renaud Capuçon and pianists Michel Dalberto and Nicholas Angelich offer the two sonatas for violin and piano and separate these two very different sonatas with the well known pieces - Berceuse, Romance, Andante, and Morceau de Lecture. On the second disc Michel Dalberto joins cellist Gautier Capuçon for the Sonate Opus 109, then offer more favorite single pieces - Élégie, Papillon, another Romance, Sérénade, and Sicilienne. The brothers Capuçon with pianist Nicholas Angelich then perform the challenging three movement Deuxième Sonate. The same ensemble plays the Trio for Piano & Strings in D Minor before turning the program over to sophisticated Quatuor Ébène (Pierre Colombet and Gabriel Le Magadure, violins, Mathieu Herzog, viola, and Raphaël Merlin, cello) for the Quartet for Strings in E Minor.
As another 'quartet ensemble' Renaud Capuçon, Michel Dalberto, Gautier Capuçon, Gérard Caussé offer the Quartet for Piano and Strings I and II and and the final disc assembles the Quatuor Ébène with Renaud Capuçon and MIchel Dalberto for the Piano Quintets I with Nicholas Angelich assuming the piano part for number II. The entire recital ends with a memorable performance of Morceau de lecture for Two Celloswith Gautier Capuçon and guest cellist Raphaël Merlin.
And so we have the complete chamber works of Gabriel Fauré as played by French musicians (with the exception of Nicholas Angelich who is American) and it is unlikely that such an event can be matched in style, quality of recordings, and sensitivity of the men involved. The surprisingly low price is well worth it as this is a treasure of a recording that will complement every music lover's library. Grady Harp, October 11
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