Gabriel Faure - Piano Trio in D minor, Op. 120

 

Gabriel Fauré in 1907

가브리엘 위르뱅 포레(프랑스어: Gabriel Urbain Fauré, 영어: g. faure, 1845년 5월 12일 - 1924년 11월 4일)는 프랑스의 작곡가이자, 오르가니스트, 피아니스트, 교사였다. 파리의 니데르마이어 음악학교에서 공부하고, 카미유 생상스에게서 가르침을 받았으며, 교회의 오르간 연주도 하였다. 파리 음악원의 원장을 역임하였고, 제자로는 모리스 라벨 등 뛰어난 음악가가 많이 있다. 클로드 드뷔시보다 앞서서 현대 프랑스 음악의 기초를 닦았다고 할 수 있다. 실내악이나 가곡에 뛰어난 작품이 많다. 작품에 현악 4중주곡, 피아노 5중주곡, 바이올린 소나타가 있으며, 그중 종교 음악의 걸작인 〈진혼곡〉, 가곡 〈꿈을 깨고서〉, 〈달빛〉 등이 유명하다.

 

Piano Trio in D minor, Op. 120

Priya Mitchell, Christian Poltéra, Kathryn Stott

I. Allegro, ma non troppo [00:00] II. Andantino [05:46] III. Allegro vivo [14:21]

 

00:20 - 06:43 I. Allegro ma non troppo 06:55 - 16:40 II. Andantino 16:46 - 21:20 III. Allegro vivo

 

Recorded live at Konzerthaus Berlin / March 5, 2020

ATOS Trio Annette von Hehn, violin Stefan Heinemeyer, violoncello Thomas Hoppe, piano

 

"..and so one says good-bye, little by little..." (Faure in a letter to his son) Gabriel Faure was 78 years old when he composed his only Piano Trio, op.120. Almost at the end of his life and ouvre, the aging composer could not hear anymore and was almost blind. At the heart of this trio is a tender Andantino, which must be one of the most beautiful, "innig" moments in all of French Chambermusic, this simple and haunting work Faure composed first, and then conceived and placed the other movements around it. The complex harmonies, strange colors and heartbreaking simplicity combined with an immense passion for life and an almost stubborn sense of inner strength makes this a typical example of Faure´s late works. A critic remarked, upon hearing the first performance of op.120: "...where indeed will he go, if he should become a hundred years old?"

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"Fauré’s final years yielded the single Piano Trio in D minor, Op. 120 and the very last composition, his only string quartet, both unquestionable master works in a late style of considerable formal freedom, graceful lyricism and an unmistakable, personal language.

The first movement follows the contours of a sonata form with rich and constant variation eluding such simple ideas as development and recapitulation. Like a flowing river in which one can never step twice, ideas recur but always in fresh treatments. The notion of water is more than mere metaphor: the music begins with a gently rippled piano figuration and a long, swaying melody from the cello that immediately evokes the Venetian gondolier’s barcarolle that Fauré frequently used.

Fauré’s gift for melody is evident throughout the trio but especially charming in the gentle repose of the central Andantino. A particularly French character pervades this tender, singing duet for violin and cello with piano eavesdropper, an indescribable mood one might attempt to describe as wistful nostalgia or sad joy. But the mood intensifies as the music gives way to a darker hued introspection that stretches into the longest movement of the trio.

The finale is a marvel of color, energy and contrast. It begins with the same peculiar octave doublings of the strings found throughout the trio (and also, curiously, in the chamber music of Debussy and especially Ravel) in a slow articulated melody that seems like an overflow from the previous movement. This is immediately interrupted by a dazzling flourish from the piano announcing the energetic rhythm that, despite attempts to foil it, will animate this Allegro vivo. Fauré seems to interleave and ultimately superimpose two different conceptions of time in this movement, each with its own recurring theme."
(http://earsense.org/chamberbase/works...)

Claremont Trio